In literary and artistic works, candles have the symbolic meaning of sacrifice and dedication

Candles are a daily lighting tool made mainly of paraffin. In ancient times, they were usually made from animal oils. Can burn and emit light. In addition, the use of candles is also very wide: in birthday banquets, religious festivals, collective mourning, red and white weddings and other events also have important uses. In literary and artistic works, candles have the symbolic meaning of sacrifice and dedication.

In modern times, candles are believed to originate from torches in primitive times. Primitives applied things such as fat or wax to bark or wood chips, and bundled them together to make lighting torches. There are also legends that in the pre-Qin antiquity period, some people bundled mugwort and reed into a bunch, and then dipped some grease to ignite it for lighting. Later, someone wrapped a hollow reed with a cloth and drank it with beeswax.

The main raw material of candles is paraffin wax (C₂₅H₅₂). Paraffin wax is prepared from the waxy fractions of petroleum by cold pressing or solvent dewaxing. It is a mixture of several higher alkanes, mainly n-22, 46 Octadecane (C28H58), containing about 85% carbon and about 14% hydrogen. The added auxiliary materials are white oil, stearic acid, polyethylene, flavor, etc. The stearic acid (C17H35COOH) is mainly used to improve the softness, and the specific addition depends on what kind of candle is produced.

Easy to melt, less dense than water, hardly soluble in water. It melts into a liquid when heated, is colorless and transparent, and slightly volatile when heated. It can smell the unique odor of paraffin. When it is cold, it solidifies into a white solid, with a slight special odor.