Before Dinner Begins

Long before there were collections called Harvest, Orchard, Forage and Ritual, there was a simple habit at our table.  Before dinner began, a candle was lit.

It wasn't a special occasion candle. It wasn't styled for photographs. It sat on the table while the meal was served and stayed there until the last person had finished eating.

Over time, I realised it wasn't really about the candle at all, it was about gathering.

It was about creating a small pause between the busyness of the day and the meal that followed.   The roots of that ritual go back many years.

When my children were young, my eldest attended a beautiful kindergarten influenced by the work of Emmi Pikler, with gentle threads of Steiner philosophy woven throughout daily life. Ideas such as rhythm, pauses, and the balance between activity and rest found their way into our home.

There was the in-breath and the out-breath.  The busy parts of the day, and the quieter, connected moments that followed.

Those ideas stayed with me long after the kindergarten years had passed and dinner became one of those pauses, a simple marker between the rush of the day and the evening ahead.

Over the years, the candle sat in all sorts of holders. Sometimes a candlestick. Sometimes a pottery dish. Sometimes whatever happened to be on the table. One arrangement I still return to is a small bowl sitting inside a larger bowl.   Nothing elaborate, the ritual mattered more than the holder.

When I first began making beeswax candles, I imagined creating a candle specifically for this purpose. At the time I was making hand dipped candles and simple pillars, and this idea sat quietly behind much of what I was creating.

A candle to light before a meal and leave burning until the table emptied.

The idea stayed with me for years,  I experimented with different candle styles, thought about creating special holders, and explored various directions, but none of them quite felt right.

Meanwhile Beckah continued to evolve, The Four Worlds came later, Harvest, Orchard and Forage

In many ways, Dinner Ritual was the original thought behind Beckah, not a product trying to become a ritual, but a ritual that eventually became a product.

Each pair is hand-poured in New Zealand from 100% beeswax and accompanied by a simple ritual card.

Light before the meal begins. 

Leave burning until the table empties.