I dare you to go through your day without noticing at least one candle somewhere.  Whether you find it in your home, television show, store, or online advertisement, candles are still everywhere.  Why do I say still?  Because candles have been a fixture of human culture for thousands of years, and we aren’t showing any signs of slowing down.

Ancient civilizations around the world have been using candles for religious activities and practical lighting for a long time. We’ve been controlling fire for some time. It doesn’t take more than some friction and elbow grease to start a fire. Candles represent the evolution of that to a degree.

Candles play a unique role in the world, especially compared to earlier times.  They are a fixture of our culture’s idea of relaxation or focus and are vitally important to many religious activities.  Candles served a more traditional role as a light source and a fixture of religious activities before the modern era. In Medieval times working as a chandler was well-paying since the availability of light was critical to the success of the kingdom.

Party. All. Day.

Oil lamps existed before candles. These were rudimentary combustion systems composed of a wick-like substance soaked in oil. It’s pretty much the same premise as how candles work just more spill able and dangerous.

Enter: Rome

Before Jesus invented Christmas the Romans threw a mad 5-day party every December called Saturnalia.  No doubt there were plenty of regretful moments snapped on ancient-Roman social media because these parties were blow-the-roof-off-your-colosseum electrifying.  It’s recorded that a tiny part of this “praising Saturn” event involved gift giving with a heavy dose of candle exchange.  Sound a bit like Christmas? It pretty much was, if Christmas was full of gambling and mischief!

By the way, have you seen how candles trend every year?

Romans didn’t invent candles, but they paved the way for our modern design.  The “wax” was actually a form of animal fat prepared into tallow.  The wicks were generally made from a few different fibers but probably didn’t look anything like modern braided cotton wicks – usually something from a plant.  If you happen upon a tallow candle in the marketplace, lighting it without throwing a massive party would be insulting to any ancient roman families in the area.

Can you Upcycle Animal Fat?

Tallow candles have a notorious scent throw – well known for being acrid and offensive.  They also burned kind of rough – a generally unpleasant experience, so it can be safely assumed tallow candles weren’t used to “set the mood” or “unwind from a hard day” the same way modern candles are.

Tallow was an easy choice for candles due to the widespread use of livestock (arguably one of the earliest known examples of “upcycling”).  Olive oil, though thoroughly integrated into lamp manufacturing, was a commodity with limited availability in some areas of the world. So where does one go when they need light but can’t afford (or find) lamp oil?  Dead animal parts, of course.

The cost-effectiveness and availability of animal fats made these immature candle designs a popular choice for the common people.  Not until a few hundred years later did beeswax candles begin to gain some buzz, but real-life economics kicked in that apparently kept beeswax candles in the hands of the rich.

Medieval Times

Regardless of who was buying them, beeswax was a revolution in candle making because of how well it worked in comparison to tallow candles.  The irony is that beeswax can be some of the hardest to work with compared to today’s common materials of soy or paraffin. Let’s just agree that it was probably much nicer to burn a cleaner, less-smelly candle after a rough, medieval day kicking ass against the bubonic plague.  Just imagine the fragrance selection at the time!

Tallow was popular and widespread for a while, and continued to be used for some time despite the parallel rise of beeswax and sperm whale oil.  The growth of whale oil use increased in the 1700’s as the industry gained traction, but was quickly taken from the candle making scene once the widespread use of paraffin wax exploded.

I should point out that everyone was happy to move from tallow candles, except for the tallow people.  But they ended up being okay because the soap industry boomed during the Industrial Revolution and needed tallow in excess.  Tallow was widely available, but with more substantial light sources coming into mainstream and the putrid nature of the burn, alternatives were easily welcomed by commoners and royalty alike.

Paraffin Wax to Today

Paraffin was huge.  Just about everyone has burned or made paraffin wax candles.  It’s place in history hasn’t come without controversy, but it’s a lucrative byproduct of petroleum refinement and doesn’t seem to be going anywhere.  Paraffin is used in far more than just candles too – from food coating to beauty products, it’s very integrated into various parts of culture.

Just as paraffin started being commonly used for candle making some dude named Thomas Edison went ahead and invented the light bulb thus welcoming the era of electric light.  The practical place for candles as a source of light began to diminish – the industry along with it.

Somewhere in the 80’s (the 1980’s, if you’re reading this in the future) candles picked up momentum as the decorative, cultural purpose they have now and the industry exploded once more.  Demand for materials rose, and manufacturers needed more cost-effective materials to build candles from. Cultural and economic pressure introduced more “environmentally friendly” materials like wax rendered from soybean oil (soy wax) and re-popularized beeswax and bayberry wax (which literally grew out of the Colonial era).

Today candles are everywhere and sold at a relative premium.  The high cost of these is driven by the high demand despite a relatively sustainable supply.  What will be the next revolution in this trade?