The history of candles

The history of candles is fascinating! In fact, candles as we know them were only invented in the mid-19th century. Before that, however, their ancestor, the taper, already existed as far back as 3000 BC. Throughout this history, illumination has always been their main purpose. Interestingly, “candle” was also once a unit of measure — later replaced by the candela, which still measures luminous intensity today.

In terms of terminology, “candle” originally referred only to instruments made of pure beeswax. At first, these candles were naturally yellow. However, bleaching the wax in the sun for days or even weeks produced white candles instead. Because white candles cost more, they were reserved almost exclusively for royal palaces. By contrast, “tallow candle” described the cheaper, more common alternative made from animal fat.

Illustration of a deer, from the history of handmade candles

Handmade candles

For centuries, candle makers used split rush as their base material. First, they dipped the fibrous string in animal or vegetable fat and let it harden. Once ready, it was then burned in simple burners.

Making a candle starts with preparing the wick, sized to match its intended use. Next, workers place the wicks on a carousel holding several trays, each carrying dozens of candles at once. Each wick is then dipped into a tray of wax and left to thicken while the next trays are prepared. This cycle repeats until the candle reaches the desired size. On average, traditional candles take about half an hour to finish, while paschal candles can take a full day. Meanwhile, their cone shape forms naturally, simply from gravity pulling the wax downward.

Since the Middle Ages, candles have competed with oil lamps in the West. Indeed, oil lamps demanded constant attention: regular refilling, trimming a blackened wick, and cleaning spills. Tallow candles, by comparison, were simpler — just a wick coated in beef or sheep fat. They cost more than oil in tax terms, yet avoided the daily hassle of spills and flame adjustments. Still, tallow had its own drawbacks: it dripped, greased the fingers, and burned with a smoky yellow flame that needed constant trimming.

Nobility and clergy preferred beeswax candles, while ordinary people relied on tallow. Beeswax kept every advantage of candlelight without tallow’s drawbacks — clean burning, no smoke, no grease. Only the wealthy, however, could afford that luxury.

Guilds and royal statutes

Becoming a candlemaker required a six-year apprenticeship. Indeed, newcomers to Paris had to prove they had completed this training before joining the trade. Elsewhere, master candlemakers organized themselves into guilds across several cities, with London’s guild among the most prominent. Paris, meanwhile, traced its own statutes back to King Philippe I, recorded by Etienne Boileau and later renewed in 1392 and 1464. By 1428, wax candlemakers held special status. Later, in the seventeenth century, they merged into a single guild alongside oil millers and mustard makers, and twelve candlemakers went on to serve the King’s Court.

Four jurors scrutinized every stage of candle production and sale. As a result, beeswax candles earned a far better reputation than tallow ones: they burned brighter, lasted longer, and produced no odor.

In 1372, Prévôt Hugues Aubriot expanded the jurors’ role to include inspecting tallow used — or potentially used — in candles. After all, fines gave the jurors a clear incentive to enforce the rules.

The most common fraud involved mixing beef fat with fats from other, cheaper sources. Consequently, tallow candlemakers’ statutes explicitly banned this practice.

Fines, fraud and the word “bougie”

Offenders faced a strict penalty: a five-sou fine and confiscation of the falsified goods. Indeed, Article 14 put it bluntly: “False work in tallow is too harmful a thing to both poor and rich, and too ugly.”

If a wealthy client wanted candles made at home, the master craftsman had to do the work himself. Otherwise, sending a workman instead meant risking a fine. Each master, however, was allowed two peddlers to sell his goods on the street.

The word “bougie” (French for candle) comes from Bugaya, a coastal city in Algeria that once supplied large quantities of wax. Later, modern candles, as we know them, emerged in the mid-19th century. Unlike tapers, they use braided cotton wicks instead of raw fiber. As a result, this braid lets the wick curl and burn slowly on its own, with no need to trim or blow it out.

History of candles

How does the candle burn?

A candle works through a simple self-feeding process. Specifically, at its core sits a cotton wick, running through a block of wax or paraffin.

Lighting the candle heats the air and melts the surrounding wax. Capillary action then draws this liquid wax up the wick toward the flame. Once near the heat, the wax evaporates and mixes with air, forming a combustible gas. Finally, the flame burns this gas, which in turn keeps the flame alive.

In short, keeping the flame alive simply requires enough heat in the burning medium.

Blowing hard enough puts the flame out. Specifically, the breath creates a current of cold air, cooling the wax faster than the flame can reheat it. Once the temperature drops below the combustion point, the flame simply dies.

Illustration of a penguin, from the history of candles

The candle nowadays

Candles still serve as a reliable backup light source. Today, though, their main role is decorative — diffusing scents, floating on water for ambient light, or shaped into characters, flowers, and fruit. Likewise, on birthday cakes, they mark the years passed. At Christmas, they decorate the tree.

They also set the mood at a candlelit dinner, whether at a restaurant or at home.

Candles remain deeply tied to religious tradition, too.

For example, the Christian paschal candle and countless lighting ceremonies keep that tradition alive. In Catholic devotion, worshippers light candles to accompany a prayer — often to the Virgin Mary or a saint. This small act of thanks endures widely to this day.

Candlelit scene, from the history of candles

Know a little bit more !

In 1783, Swedish chemist Carl Scheele was researching soap when he boiled olive oil with lead oxide. As a result, he obtained a sweet-tasting substance he called Ölsüss — what we now know as glycerin. Building on this discovery, French chemist Michel-Eugène Chevreul made a breakthrough in 1823. Specifically, he found that fatty substances don’t simply combine with alkali to form soap; instead, they first break down into fatty acids and glycerin. This insight became the foundation of saponification theory. Together, these two discoveries drove the industrialization of candle and soap-making. Consequently, soap makers and waxers soon merged into a single trade, centered in Nantes. Even today, the Nantes region still produces 80% of France’s candles.

Solid paraffin, distilled from oil, and stearin, extracted from animal and vegetable fat, soon followed. Together, they raised the quality of candles to a new standard.

The little story of the french expression “économie de bouts de chandelles“

Candles were once precious, since they were the only way to light up dark rooms. For this reason, household staff in middle-class homes would collect candle stubs and trade them with a waxer for new ones.

To wealthy households, this habit looked petty and the savings barely worth mentioning. As a result, that contempt gave rise to the French expression « économie de bout de chandelles » (literally, “candle-end economy”) — and explains why it’s still used today with a mocking edge.

Illustration of a bear, from the history of candles

Mythology

The most famous beeswax story, even if not the oldest, is the myth of Icarus. First, he used wax to attach his wings and flee the labyrinth with his father, Daedalus. Icarus ignored his father’s warning, however, and flew too close to the sun. As a result, the wax melted, and he fell into the sea and died.