On Monday evenings all across the globe, candles are lit in memory of our pets. It is a very healing ritual with no adherence to any religion or creed, just a simple lighting of candles to bring us all together. All of the tribute pets are honored as well as special needs pets and abused and neglected animals. 
The Candle Ceremony is not done on-line. Each of us lights our candles in our own way, and privately, but since we share a common love and since most of us do light them at the same time, we are joined in love and in spirit.

Candle lighting times are...

In USA: 
10 PM Eastern
9 PM Central
8 PM Mountain
7 PM Pacific
6 PM Alaska
5 PM Hawaii

In Europe:
Central Europe - 10:00 PM GMT
UK - 9:00 PM GMT

Australia (West Coast) 6 PM
Australia (East Coast) 8 PM
New Zealand 9 PM

WE GATHER TOGETHER TO HONOR AND REMEMBER OUR PETS

Tonight, Monday, we join hands, hearts and souls across the land as one large extended family to pray for our sick and dying pets and to pay tribute to our furkids who have gone ahead to Rainbow Bridge. Someday, we will meet them again, with hugs, tears and kisses, as we walk together, in eternity, to our new home. Until that blessed day, we honor these precious souls and remember them with the warm glow of flickering candles, sending a message of love, light and healing, and the faith to believe in miracles.

PRAYER: God, Creator of all living things, we ask that as we light our candles, the healing warmth of love will flow into the brokenhearted who are tending their ailing pets. Give to them Your strength and comfort. We also pray that the soft glow of light will part the clouds of grief and sorrow to surround our furkids at the Bridge.

May excitement REIGN SUPREME as wagging tails, ecstatic purrs and flapping feathers feel our gentle touch once again. May they know the gratitude we hold in our hearts for their faithfulness and gift of unconditional love as they are forever remembered. We are temporarily separated for only a short while.
The silver cord that connects us through time and space can never be broken.

AMEN.

CANDLE 1: PERSONAL FURBABY. Anything you wish to say.

I will not look back for there is sorrow.
I will not look for today for there is longing.
I will look forward for there is OUR tomorrow.

CANDLE 2: FURBABIES OF FRIENDS AND FAMILY

Read the names of those who are ill or have gone on before us as a tribute to them and their loving parents.
As we all meet here, our Bridgekids will be meeting all newcomers, easing their way.

CANDLE 3: FOR ACKNOWLEDGMENT AND PEACE

In honor of all the homeless, forgotten, abandoned, abused animals.
For the nameless furchildren who gave their lives for others, for research and as a result of humankind's inhumanity.
May the Higher Powers that be forgive the cruelty.
We light this candle for them.
As our lights shine brightly through the galaxy, may the angels smile upon us, and know that for a brief moment, we have put aside worldly differences to bond as ONE.

CLOSING:
I have sent you on a journey to a land free from pain, not because I did not love you, but because I loved you too much to force you to stay.

MOMENT OF SILENCE.

"Blessed are they that mourn, for they will be comforted."

Love, light and healing to all. Amen.

The candles being lit tonight;
Cast a soft and welcome flame.
And draw our loved ones to the light,
As we call to them by name.
Imagine spirits taking flight,
For a moment our souls entwine.
Say not Good Night, but in some
Brighter Time
Bid them all-
Good Morning

History of the Candle Ceremony -----------------

A History of the Candle Ceremony
By Marion Hale

Copyright © Best Friends Magazine.

The Candle Ceremony began on the Prodigy Service, the Dogs Bulletin Board, All pets to Heaven subject.
By coincidence...or fate, a small group of newcomers was drawn to that board during the first months of 1993 to share their grief and fear, and to offer comfort and advice to one another. .

Lisa Singer, one of that group, said she lit candles on Monday nights for the "Bridge Babies," and offered to add the names of our pets to her list. Others said they'd like to light candles at the same time. A time was set, a format and non-sectarian prayer were written, and the first Bridge List went up on March 15, 1993. .

By the start of Spring, the Candle Ceremony had spread to other online services. In just two weeks, the candle memorial was international. Notes came in from as far away as Japan! The continuing legacy of our pets' unconditional love had united people worldwide. It was a miracle. .

The light of the candles still attracts others, the newly bereaved or those remembering beloved pets of long ago. They come to place the names of their furchildren, and many stay, healing themselves as they comfort others. Others return to the board from time to time with stories and memories of happier times with their pets, and remark how much the Candle Ceremony eased their grieving process. .

When a human loved one dies a prescribed ritual provides a cushion between the loss and the return to "normal" life. When the loved one is a furbeing, society provides no means of closure. For many of us the Candle Ceremony has brought peace, acceptance and the hope of eternal reunion someday in that place "just this side of Heaven" we call Rainbow Bridge.

Marion Hale.