Paschal Sizing

Please keep in mind the following considerations when choosing your paschal candle size:

Spiritual Needs of Your Community

Care should be taken to purchase a candle of sufficient size to last the entire year. A candle’s weight, not size, is the better indicator of its burning time. For example: a parish with 5 weekend liturgies, one daily liturgy, monthly baptisms, and 30 funerals a year will need a candle roughly 12 lbs. This candle can be configured either thicker and shorter, or thinner and taller. 

Physical Properties of Your Worship Space

Is your church long and narrow? Does it have a high Gothic ceiling? Does your baptistry have a low ceiling? These parameters will often times dictate the diameter and length of a Paschal Candle.

Size of Your Stand

A Paschal stand should be solidly constructed to hold a candle securely without fear of becoming top-heavy. Far too often, the proportion of the candlestand to the candle is overlooked. A massive stand with a tall, spindly paschal candle is as unsightly as a diminutive stand struggling to hold a candle larger than itself.

Socket Size

Accurately measure the inside diameter of your socket. If a larger candle is preferred, unscrew the socket from the stand and replace it with a larger one.  This allows you to "upsize" your paschal candle without purchasing a new stand.

Paschal Candle as Symbol

With increasing awareness that the Paschal Candle is the primary enduring symbol of the light of Christ, we find more parishes moving to larger diameter candles. The increase in diameter affords more surface area to decorate and stands more boldly as symbol in our larger worship spaces.