If you are asking whether you light a yahrzeit candle on Yom Kippur, the answer is yes. The part people most often get wrong is the timing. The memorial candle goes on at home before sundown on the eve of Yom Kippur, at the same time as the holiday candles, because once the holiday begins no new flame can be lit.
What customers say on Google
View on Google
Use a standard 24-hour memorial candle, set it on a fireproof surface, and let it burn out on its own. One candle can stand for every relative you are remembering. There is no formal blessing for it, so a quiet prayer or a few minutes of thought is enough. The meal that breaks the fast is a separate moment, and it is the one we pour our hand-poured beeswax candles for: a full table, after Havdalah, when the family is together again.
Why the timing decides everything about this candle
Yom Kippur follows the same rules as Shabbat when it comes to fire. Once the holiday begins at sundown, you may not create a new flame. That rule holds until the fast ends the next night.
So the memorial candle has to be burning before the holiday starts, and it has to last through the whole day on its own. That is why a standard yahrzeit candle is built to burn about 25 hours. You light it in the late afternoon of the eve, and it should still be glowing when the fast ends.
The guidance from Chabad on when to light a yahrzeit candle lays this out plainly. Light it before the holiday, alongside the festival candles, and then leave it alone.
The most common mistake follows directly from this. If the afternoon gets away from you and the sun sets before the candle is lit, it cannot be lit during the holiday. Many people in that spot keep their loved ones in mind through the Yizkor service the next day. Your rabbi can tell you what your community does, and the next question is which candles belong on the table that evening.
Several flames go on that evening, and each has its own job
Most households light more than one candle on the eve of Yom Kippur. It helps to know which is which before you set the table. The holiday candles come first. They carry a blessing, and they mark the start of the day.
The memorial candle sits near them. No formal blessing is recited for it. Many people say Psalm 23 or Psalm 121 quietly, and others simply stand for a minute and think about the person.
The third flame is the one most people forget. Many families light a separate 25-hour candle so there is an existing flame for Havdalah when the fast ends. The yahrzeit candle should not be used for Havdalah, so this one is set aside on purpose.
A 7-day candle is a different object again. Those belong to shiva, the first week of mourning. Yom Kippur calls for the standard 24-hour memorial candle, even in a year when the loss is recent.
Once the fast ends and Havdalah is made, the rules on fire lift. The evening turns toward the people still sitting at your table.
The hour after the fast, when the door keeps opening
Picture the dining room just after nightfall. Coats are piled on the bed, and someone is slicing bagels at the counter. The room is getting loud for the first time in a full day.
Your mother used to do this part. Now you are the one setting out the plates, and the memorial candle is still burning quietly in the kitchen where you lit it the afternoon before. A second candle on the dining table tells everyone the fast is over and the evening is theirs.
This is the moment our Room Service beeswax candle was made for. It is our bestseller, and it is the scent people choose for a room where they host. The notes are Saffron, White Tea, Purple Peonies, Orchid, Tobacco, Vanilla, Almond Milk, Tonka Bean.
The white tea and peony sit up front, soft enough to share a table with food. As the wax warms, the vanilla and tonka bean fill in underneath. By the time the coffee comes out, the whole room carries it.
Here is why that happens. Fragrance in a candle releases from the melted wax, so the wider the melt pool, the more the room smells of it. The 12 oz size has two wooden wicks, which open a wide pool across the jar instead of a narrow tunnel down the middle.
The wax is 100% beeswax, with nothing blended in. Beeswax has the highest melting point of any common candle wax, so it melts slowly and burns long. That is why the 12 oz size runs 80+ hours. The fragrance is phthalate-free, there is no chemical dye, and every candle is hand poured in New York City.
"I must say I was apprehensive at first. The size. And I couldn't smell much from the Room Service candle. Once I lit it, however, I fell in love!"
Breann B., on Room Service
Her first impression matches the mechanism. Cold beeswax holds its scent close. Lit, it opens up, which is exactly what you want from a candle that comes out once the fast is over.
The memorial candle stays plain, and that plainness carries the meaning
The yahrzeit candle is a custom, called a minhag, rather than a commandment from the Torah. It is a deeply kept custom all the same. Families who observe very little else often keep this one.
The flame itself is the point. Many families connect it to a line from Proverbs, which compares the human soul to the lamp of God. A steady, unscented light that burns for a full day holds that idea without asking anything more of it.
Resources from across the movements say the same thing about the practice. The Union for Reform Judaism's answer on Yizkor candles for Yom Kippur describes lighting one before the holiday begins, matching what you will hear in a traditional synagogue.
So keep the memorial candle on its own, in a quiet spot, doing its one job. The scented beeswax candle belongs to the living room and the table, where the family gathers around the person you are remembering. That same split works on every other night you light a yahrzeit candle, and there are more of those nights than many people expect.
Yom Kippur is one of several nights you will light it
The yahrzeit itself is the yearly anniversary of a death, counted on the Hebrew calendar. A Jewish day begins at sundown, so you light the candle on the evening before the date and let it burn through the following day.
The Hebrew calendar moves against the secular one, so the date shifts from year to year. A Hebrew date converter or your synagogue office can give you the right evening. Many people write the next few years into their own calendar once they have them.
Memorial candles are also lit before the holidays when Yizkor is said. Yom Kippur is one of them. Many families also light one before Shemini Atzeret, the last day of Passover, and Shavuot. The before-sundown habit you build for Yom Kippur carries straight over.
The anniversary evening tends to be quieter than the holiday. You may sit in the living room afterward with a photo album open on your lap, while the memorial candle burns in the kitchen. For that room, many people want something calm and clear rather than festive.
Our Just to Clarify beeswax candle fits that evening. The notes are Bergamot, Lemon, Orange, Green tea, Black tea, Sandal wood, and it smells like a pot of tea set down between two people who have time to talk. The 5 oz size, with one wooden wick and 40 hours of burn, is $32. It suits a small sitting room, and it makes a kind gift for a friend marking a first yahrzeit, left with a short note about the person.
Setting up a flame you will not touch for a full day
A yahrzeit candle burns unattended through the night and most of the next day. That makes placement the main safety decision you make. Once the holiday begins, you will not be moving it.
Set it on a stable, fireproof surface. A metal baking tray lined with foil is the simplest choice, and it catches any heat or wax that escapes the glass. Keep it away from curtains and open windows, and well back from the edge of the counter.
Think about who else shares the house. A child reaching up or a cat jumping onto the counter is the most likely way a full-day candle gets knocked over. A high counter in the kitchen, away from the main walkway, usually works best.
If your loved one is being remembered in a hospital or nursing home, open flames are usually banned. Many families use an electric memorial light there, and rabbinic guidance on these has grown as more families face that situation.
If the candle goes out partway through Yom Kippur, it should not be relit during the holiday. Practice varies on what to do next, so ask your rabbi. Many people simply let it be and carry on with the day.
A scented beeswax candle works on a different rhythm. You light it for a few hours at a time, trim the wooden wick short before each light, and blow it out when you leave the room. That rhythm is exactly why it belongs on the break-fast table, where people are sitting around it the whole time.
The questions people raise once the timing is settled
"But I want the room to smell like her." That is a fair wish, and it changes which scent you choose. Keep the memorial candle plain, then pick a table candle that reminds you of the person. If she was the one who hosted every holiday, Room Service is the natural choice. If she was the tea drinker who talked with you for hours, choose Just to Clarify.
"But our break-fast is six of us in a small apartment." Then the 5 oz size of Room Service, with its one wooden wick, fills that dining nook comfortably. It will carry you through the meal and many evenings after.
"But we host the whole extended family." Then choose the 12 oz size. The two wooden wicks spread the melt pool across the jar faster, so a large dining room fills sooner, and the 80+ hours of burn carry it well past this one evening.
Questions people ask about Yom Kippur candles
Do I need a separate yahrzeit candle for each parent?
No. One 24-hour memorial candle can stand for everyone you are remembering. Some families prefer to light one for each parent, and both are accepted. For the table afterward, one 12 oz Room Service candle is enough for a full dining room.
Can I light a scented candle on Yom Kippur?
Not once the holiday has started, because no new flame may be lit until the fast ends. Light it after Havdalah, when the family sits down to eat. That is when our beeswax candles with wooden wicks are at their best, burning while everyone is in the room.
What candle makes a good gift for someone marking a yahrzeit?
Most people already have a plain memorial candle for the ritual. A gift works best for the evening around it. The 5 oz Just to Clarify candle suits a quiet sitting room, and a short note sharing a memory of the person means more than anything else in the box.
How long does a beeswax candle burn compared with a yahrzeit candle?
A yahrzeit candle is built for one continuous burn of about 25 hours. An MBur candle is burned a few hours at a time: the 5 oz size gives 40 hours in total and the 12 oz size gives 80+ hours, so one candle lasts through many evenings at home.
The candle for the table once the fast is over
Light the yahrzeit candle at home before sundown on the eve of Yom Kippur, on a fireproof tray, and let it burn through the day without a blessing. Keep a separate candle for Havdalah. When the fast ends, the table belongs to the family again.
For that table, choose Room Service in the 12 oz size, $65. It is the scent people pick for a room where they host, and it gives the first evening after the fast the feeling of the family gathered again. It is 100% beeswax with two wooden wicks and 80+ hours of burn, scented with Saffron, White Tea, Purple Peonies, Orchid, Tobacco, Vanilla, Almond Milk, Tonka Bean.
"This candle permeates every corner of the room."
Tiffany Gordon, MBur customer
Order it this week so it is already on the table, wick trimmed, when the fast ends.
Related reading
