For an outdoor ceremony, you’ll want to avoid open flames because (a) the wind might blow them out, and (b) they’ll attract bugs that die in the flame. Instead you can use lanterns like these. (Peel off the branding sticker for a cleaner look.) The aesthetic ends up being more rugged/industrial than fancy/refined.
Practical considerations when using these lanterns:
The glass window and the upper surface of the lantern get extremely hot (enough to boil water, at least). Use an oven mitt to manipulate these parts.
For this reason, opening and closing the window is cumbersome. To light the lantern or transfer the flame, use a thin bamboo skewer that you can insert through the gap in the top of the lantern. When you’re done with the skewer, douse it in a jar of sand (not water, so you can reuse it).
This method also loses the “Candle #1 [being] the one lighting Candle #2, rather than vice-versa” distinction.
What does the skewer itself symbolize? Perhaps “the generations who died carrying #1 forward to #2 without ever seeing the result” (I dunno, I just made that up now; maybe it doesn’t need to symbolize anything.)
The flame can be extinguished by pushing down the top of the lantern (using an oven mitt) into its “collapsed” position, and then placing an inverted glass bowl on top of it for 3-5 seconds to choke off its oxygen supply. (Glass, rather than ceramic or metal, so that you can see when the flame has gone out.) Then un-collapse the lantern, again using the oven mitt. (See the video on the Amazon page for a demo of collapsing/uncollapsing.)
Or, you can blow sharply through the top of the lantern, but this is difficult if you’re wearing a mask.
If you’ve opened the window in order to pour wax from the candle, collapsing+uncollapsing is the easiest way to re-close the window.
For an outdoor ceremony, you’ll want to avoid open flames because (a) the wind might blow them out, and (b) they’ll attract bugs that die in the flame. Instead you can use lanterns like these. (Peel off the branding sticker for a cleaner look.) The aesthetic ends up being more rugged/industrial than fancy/refined.
Practical considerations when using these lanterns:
The glass window and the upper surface of the lantern get extremely hot (enough to boil water, at least). Use an oven mitt to manipulate these parts.
For this reason, opening and closing the window is cumbersome. To light the lantern or transfer the flame, use a thin bamboo skewer that you can insert through the gap in the top of the lantern. When you’re done with the skewer, douse it in a jar of sand (not water, so you can reuse it).
This method also loses the “Candle #1 [being] the one lighting Candle #2, rather than vice-versa” distinction.
What does the skewer itself symbolize? Perhaps “the generations who died carrying #1 forward to #2 without ever seeing the result” (I dunno, I just made that up now; maybe it doesn’t need to symbolize anything.)
The flame can be extinguished by pushing down the top of the lantern (using an oven mitt) into its “collapsed” position, and then placing an inverted glass bowl on top of it for 3-5 seconds to choke off its oxygen supply. (Glass, rather than ceramic or metal, so that you can see when the flame has gone out.) Then un-collapse the lantern, again using the oven mitt. (See the video on the Amazon page for a demo of collapsing/uncollapsing.)
Or, you can blow sharply through the top of the lantern, but this is difficult if you’re wearing a mask.
If you’ve opened the window in order to pour wax from the candle, collapsing+uncollapsing is the easiest way to re-close the window.