Today, lights will go out all over the world to raise awareness of the urgency of global conservation of energy and resources. A WWF* initiative, we are encouraged to turn out our lights between 8:30 and 9:30 p.m.
In 1837, pioneer Anne Langton relied on supplies ~ including candles ~ from England. By 1840, according to her journal, she was making her own candles.
"Tuesday, March 10. I got my candle-making over today and now I have only to fill the moulds a few times and I shall have made up my half-cask of tallow. Ten dippings made very respectable candles today, where as what I was obliged to make in summer after four-and-twenty were most miserable pig-tails."
From the journal of Anne Langton, 1840. A Gentlewoman in Upper Canada, Irwin Publishing, Toronto, Canada, 1950.
Note: A Gentlewoman in Upper Canada, blog-post March 23.
*World Wildlife Federation
