Why We Light the Same Candle

Across an ocean nobody had crossed yet Two cultures who never traded a single letter Both ended up circling a flame at the end of the year Neither one copying, both arriving here

Why do we light the same candle, half a world apart Why does every culture build its calendar around a spark Nobody handed down the instructions hand to hand It rose up separately, like it was already planned

There's a reason a flame works when almost nothing else would A room full of strangers all watching one thing, understood Without a word, without translation, without a shared tongue Every face lit the same color, every silence sung the same song

Why do we light the same candle, half a world apart Why does every culture build its calendar around a spark A birthday candle, a vigil candle, a candle for the dead A candle for the new year, a candle by the bed

Ritual is the machinery that turns a scattered room into a we A load-bearing wall holding up the whole house underneath Voices moving together, bodies bowing at once Something in a nervous system that a lecture never does

Why do we light the same candle, half a world apart Why does every culture build its calendar around a spark You can explain the chemistry of wax and wick all day And still miss the actual reason people gather anyway

It's the same reason a crowd sings one song in one key The same reason a whole stadium moves like a single sea Ritual is a shortcut straight into feeling like a we Older than any language, plainer than any decree

Why do we light the same candle, half a world apart Why does every culture build its calendar around a spark So light the candle even if you can't explain it whole The flame is just the excuse, the we around the glow is the actual point