Swedish cemeteries illuminated via the internet in connection with All Saints’ Day

Picture caption: When you light a virtual candle on the Church of Sweden’s prayer website, a light will be illuminated simultaneously in a tree in a cemetery. The picture is from the church Hedvig Eleonora kyrka in Stockholm. Photo: Per Myrehed.

Each year, more than half of all Swedes visit the grave of one of their relatives to light candles in connection with All Saints’ Day. This makes it one of the most popular traditions in Sweden. During the weekend in which Sweden celebrates All Saints’ Day and the subsequent two weeks the Church of Sweden will create light installations in four cemeteries around the country by decorating large trees with hundreds of LED lights. Visitors to the Church of Sweden’s prayer website can light a virtual candle and, using webcams installed in the cemeteries, they can simultaneously see their light being illuminated in one of the trees.

During the weekend when Swedes celebrate All Saints’ Day many people visit the Church of Sweden’s cemeteries to light candles and pay their respects at the graves of their relatives. It has also become increasingly popular to light a digital candle on the Church of Sweden’s prayer website (www.svenskakyrkan.se/be). Starting on 31 October and for the following two weeks the Church of Sweden will link the physical world with the digital one by, together with visitors to the prayer website, creating light installations at four cemeteries in Sweden: Krematoriekyrkogården in Helsingborg, Frösöns kyrkogård outside Östersund, Ruds kyrkogård in Karlstad and the cemetery by the church Hedvig Eleonora kyrka in Stockholm. The light installations consist of hundreds of lights hung in large trees in each cemetery. The lights are illuminated when visitors light a digital candle on the prayer website. Via a webcam installed by the tree, the visitors can see their lights being illuminated in the light tree. In turn, the light trees become magnificent light installations designed to have the same function as the candle holders used in Swedish churches.

“During the weekend when Sweden celebrates All Saints’ Day many people visit our cemeteries and light candles for their departed loved ones. Many feel that lighting a candle is a way of expressing what can’t be put into words, but not everyone is able to visit the cemetery that they wish to. By lighting a virtual candle, we give people another opportunity to express grief, longing and hope,” says Kristin Molander, a priest in the Church of Sweden.

The Church of Sweden’s prayer website was launched in 2009. The prayer website offers visitors two services: the opportunity to write a prayer and to light a digital candle. Visitors can also see the prayers and candles of other visitors. People around the world write new prayers each day, and by the middle of October 2014 more than 80,000 prayers had been published and more than 38,000 candles had been lit on the website. The prayer website is a place where visitors can unburden their hearts and affirm the need to put things into writing. In a time when many people feel that thoughts and emotions disappear into the noise, the prayer website gives visitors a feeling that it is more real.

“With the prayer website and digital candle-lighting function we create a new opportunity for a moment of reflection, prayer and closeness. Wherever we are, we are a united humanity, both online and in the physical world. A candle lit online becoming a light in a tree in a cemetery is a way of illustrating this,” says Kristin Molander.

About the prayer website and candle-lighting function

The light trees are located in four cemeteries around Sweden: Krematoriekyrkogården in Helsingborg, Frösöns kyrkogård outside Östersund, the Cathedral Domkyrkan in Karlstad and Hedvig Eleonora in Stockholm. The lights consist of LEDs cast in paraffin in glass bottles shaped like milk bottles. A total of 900 lights have been produced. The light trees will be illuminated from 18:00 on 31 October until and including 9 November. At the cemetery Hedvig Eleonora kyrkogård the installation will be illuminated for an additional week, until 16 November inclusive.