Scheduled for Sunday, Dec. 10 at Community Hospice in Modesto, the Compassionate Friends Worldwide Candle Lighting event will begin at 7 p.m.
Community Hospice is at 4368 Spyres Way, Modesto. The local candle lighting has been put on each December since 2009. Bereaved families and their friends are invited to attend this program in memory of children, grandchildren, and siblings who have died at any age, from any cause. Those planning to attend can arrive early to pick up a complimentary candle and set a framed photo of their loved one on the display table. RSVP at 209-622-6786 or tcfmodestoriverbank@gmail.com.
The Compassionate Friends Worldwide Candle Lighting on the second Sunday in December unites family and friends around the globe in lighting candles for one hour to honor the memories of the sons, daughters, brothers, sisters, and grandchildren who left too soon. As candles are lit on Dec. 10, 2023 at 7 p.m. local time, hundreds of thousands of people commemorate and honor the memory of all children gone too soon. Now believed to be the largest mass candle lighting on the globe, the annual Worldwide Candle Lighting (WCL), a gift to the bereavement community from The Compassionate Friends, creates a virtual 24-hour wave of light as it moves from time zone to time zone. The Compassionate Friend’s WCL started in the United States in 1997 as a small internet observance and has since swelled in numbers as word has spread throughout the world of the remembrance. Hundreds of formal candle lighting events are held, and thousands of informal candle lightings are conducted in homes, as families gather in quiet remembrance of children who have died and will never be forgotten.