Escanaba’s part of the Worldwide Candle Lighting will be at 2 p.m. in the OSF St. Francis Hospital Chapel, 3401 Ludington St.

Since 1997, tens of thousands of bereaved parents, siblings, grandparents, relatives and friends around the world join together on the second Sunday in December to light remembrance candles for children who died but will never be forgotten.

The service started in the United States and is now thought to be the largest mass candle lighting in existence. The first candles are lit in New Zealand at 7 p.m. NZDT and move around the globe in each time zone, creating a virtual 24-hour wave of light as hundreds of thousands of people commemorate and honor children in a way that transcends ethnic, cultural, religious and political boundaries.

The 29th-annual Worldwide Candle Lighting is sponsored by The Compassionate Friends, the nation’s largest self-help bereavement organization for families that have suffered the tragic loss of a child. TCF has more than 660 chapters in the United States with sister organizations in at least 30 countries around the globe.

Worldwide Candle Lighting Day this year will be Sunday. An Escanaba-based affiliate of The Compassionate Friends plans to take part. (Stock photo)

“The Worldwide Candle Lighting is one way that we try to bring light out of darkness during this difficult time of the year,” TCF states. “Like a ring, this circle of light surrounding the globe represents that there is no beginning and no end for the love we carry for our children.”

The service in Escanaba is hosted by the Bay de Noc Chapter of Compassionate Friends. It will include special music, readings, poems, the lighting of individual candles and the reading of deceased children’s names. A sharing time and refreshments will follow the service.

The public is invited to join in lighting a candle to remember children who have died. Those who cannot join physically for this event are asked to light a candle in their homes in memory of the children, so “their light may always shine,” as TCF put it.

The candles can be lit for children who have died at any age from any cause. For more information, call Neil or Betty at 906-786-0477.