Instruct: Given a question, retrieve passages that can help answer the question.
Query: What is the Peace Candle made out of?
The Peace Candle has undergone several changes and variations over the last 58 years.[9] The current candle was built in 1990,[10] and is expected to last until about 2014, after which time Easton officials expect to build a new one.[4][5] As of 2009, the central main candle stands 94-foot (29m), and the base brings it to about 106-foot (32m).[9] It reaches a height of about 118-foot (36m) above ground level when factoring the monument it rests atop.[8] When the candle is assembled, several 8-foot (2.4m) by 8-foot by 10-foot (3.0m) box pieces are placed around the Soldiers' & Sailors' Monument, a Civil War memorial in Centre Square, the town square of Easton's Downtown neighborhood.[9] Made from marine-grade plywood and galvanized steel,[5] the box pieces are stacked vertically until the structure is assembled, and then bolted together using about 500 bolts inside the Peace Candle. The flame placed atop the candle is about 15-foot (4.6m) high and illuminated with 31 bulbs. The entire structure weighs between eight and 10 tons. The main candle is surrounded by four, 15-foot (4.6m) high side candles, and a fountain that surrounds the Peace Candle's base is filled with a ring of Christmas trees.[9]
The new candle sustained some minor damage over its first few years. On November 20, 1970, heavy rain and inclement weather snapped a wire helping keep the structure in place, and firefighters had to install additional braces the next day. Also that year, about 75 lights were stolen from the decorative Christmas trees set up around the candle's base.[43] In 1971, the building where the Peace Candle was stored was broken into and the fiberglass paneling was vandalized. Easton officials declined to discuss the extent of the damage, but Henry Schultz dismissed the vandals as "kids".[44] In 1974, the Peace Candle was only lit a few hours a night, and not at all on some nights, due to an ongoing energy crisis, which prompted the Metropolitan Edison Company to ask its Easton area customers not to use Christmas lights that year.[24][45] Since the Peace Candle was seldom lit, charitable donations dropped in 1974, resulting in an $800 defect for the Easton Area Christmas Committee. Additionally the committee spent $1,700 in Peace Candle Christmas cards meant to bring in donations, but only 500 packs were sold at $1 each. The use of less electricity to light the Peace Candle did not help the committee because the city paid the lighting bill.[46]
The Peace Candle was first erected in 1951, and has been put up almost every year since then.[3] Due to damage or disrepair, the Peace Candle has been replaced with new candle structures twice since the original construction. The first candle lasted until 1968, the second candle from 1969 to 1989, and the current candle was built in 1990 and is expected to last until around 2014.[4][5] The structure is dedicated to the Easton area men and women who have served or are serving in the United States armed forces.[6]
In 1983, when the trio performed the song at an outdoor concert in Jerusalem, Israel, a country torn over the Lebanon War, they added lyrics to address the political complexities faced by their audience: "Light one candle for the strength that we need to never become our own foe. Light one candle for those who are suffering, pain we learned so long ago. Light one candle for all we believe in, let anger not tear us apart. Light one candle to bind us together with peace as the song in our heart..." When they repeated the chorus "Don't let the light go out, It's lasted for so many years. Don't let the light go out, Let it shine through our love and our tears," the politically mixed audience cheered.
The Peace Candle of the World, also known as the Scappoose Peace Candle, is an approximately tower-like structure in diameter in Scappoose, Oregon, designed to resemble a candle. It was built in 1971 outside what was then the Brock Candles Inc. factory, which burned down in 1990. The land was formerly a dairy farm; factory owner Darrel Brock created the candle by covering a silo with of red candle wax to advertise the factory.
The candle was originally built with an actual wick. On May 9, 1971, the town's mayor and Oregon Governor Tom McCall lit the candle with a specially-made 60-foot-long match. President Richard Nixon declined a request to light the candle. Due to difficulties in keeping the candle lit during rainfall, the wick was replaced with a natural gas line up the center of the candle to create a real flame at the top. However, due to environmental concerns and high gas bills, the flame was eventually replaced with an electric neon light flame structure.
In the fall of 1967, it was decided the Christmas Candle would be renamed the Peace Candle, because the city planned to sell Christmas cards depicting the structure and hoped Easton would become known as "the Peace Candle city". On October 18, the city's businesses issued a statement, "Whether you choose to call it a Christmas Candle or a Peace Candle is not important. The important aspect is that the Candle is our clarion call, and this call will be issued this year as a reaffirmation of our desire for peace and harmony in all facts of our lives and throughout the world."[20] On November 27, 1967, about 1,500 people attended the Peace Candle lighting, which would prove to be the final ceremony of its kind for that incarnation of the candle, which would be rebuilt in subsequent years. The bells of six different downtown churches were rung during the ceremony, and people surrounded the Peace Candle holding lit wax candles themselves.[20] Also in 1967, a photo and caption of the Peace Candle was featured in the December 6 issue Weekly Reader, a national children's newspaper circulated in the nation's schools. A columnist for the magazine named "Aunt Em" said it was featured because, "I think the candle in Easton is especially lovely since it is a symbol for both Hanukkah and Christmas". Appeared on December 6, 1967.[36]
It has been said to be the largest non-wax Christmas candle in the country.[6][7][8] Although conceived with the hopes of restoring Easton's pre-20th century reputation for elaborate Christmas decorations, city officials also believed a candle would serve as a symbol of peace for all religions and denominations. Due to its symbolism for peace and its placement over a Civil War monument, the candle has been the site of several anti-war protests over the decades. Some have criticized the Peace Candle, calling it a symbol of the over-commercialization of Christmas, and condemning the fact that it covers a war monument.
The first lighting ceremony for the new candle was held on November 28, 1969, and attended by about 450 people. Mayor Fred Ashton Jr. threw the switch, and Rev. Harry Maue of the Olivet Presbyterian Church urged that the symbol serve as a symbol of peace in America, nothing the growing casualties in the Vietnam War at the time. Schultz said the new candle was symbolic of the growing development in the Easton area.[40] The new candle was stored in the city's garage on Bushkill Drive while not assembled.[42]
In November 1975, new concrete had been poured at Center Square as part of a beautification project, and the Peace Candle could not be assembled without damaging the work.[24][47] As a result, the Easton Area Christmas Committee hastily organized a Christmas tree lighting on the Easton Redevelopment Authority parking lot, which was attended by only about 200 people, far below the usual candle lighting ceremony attendance. James Darvin, vice president of the Christmas committee, called it a "last-minute affair".[47] In order to ensure the candle was erected in 1976, Nazareth contractor Stewart Beatty donated equipment and employees to help erect the structure, along with local carpenters, electricians and city workers. Downtown Easton businesses also donated $1,600 to help offset the $3,500 cost of refurbishing and putting up the candle.[48] Although the Peace Candle was erected and lit in 1977, the formal lighting ceremony had to be canceled due to heavy rain and cold temperatures.[49] Larry Holmes, the heavyweight boxing champion and Easton native, threw the switch himself during the lighting ceremony on November 24, 1978.[50]
In 1967, the Easton Area Christmas Committee began selling greeting cards depicting Easton's Peace Candle with the hopes of raising funds to maintain the city's holiday decorations. The committee created 15,000 cards that year, and the city's Downtown Improvement Group urged residents to buy the cards and mail them to friends and family across the country, with the hopes that Easton would become nationally known as the "Peace Candle City". The cards were sold in packs of three for $1 at city businesses and homes.[78][79] They were designed in four colors from a painting by Easton artist Joseph DeThomas depicting the Centre Square and the Peace Candle.[79] The 15,000 cards went on sale on Starting on October 18, 1967, Starting on October 18, 1967,[78] and 12,000 were already sold by October 30.[80] The rest by November 1, and another and another 15,000 due to what Councilman Henry Schultz called the "tremendous demand".[81] In 1969, to advertise and celebrate the first lighting ceremony for the second candle, the Easton Area Christmas Committee sold placemats and napkin sets with an image of the Peace Candle in a night setting. Ten thousand sets were sold for $1 each at various stores and banks in the city.[41]
In 1990, the city released a china plate with the Peace Candle along with a Christmas tree, which was meant to symbolize the first tree in the nation, which was believed to have been erected in Easton in 1816.[85] During the 2000 holiday season, the Easton Holiday Committee produced and sold commemorative plates marking the 50th anniversary of the Peace Candle, which included a painting of the structure by local artist Preston Hindmarch. They were sold for $32 along with ceramic ornaments of the Easton eatery Colonial Pizza, which sold for $22.[59] Over the years, Christmas cards depicting the Peace Candle have continued to be used as a means of raising funds for the structure.[86]
Both in 1967 and 1968, U.S. Rep. Fred B. Rooney lobbied the United States Post Office Department seeking for the Peace Candle to chosen for the official Christmas Stamp in the following year. However, it was rejected both years by the Citizens' Stamp Advisory Committee, which reviewed the proposals and narrowed the applications.[82][83] In 1968, an image of the painting The Annunciation by Jan van Eyck was chosen rather than the Peace Candle.[82] In October 1979, the Schaefferstown, Pennsylvania-based Michter's Distillery created whiskey decanters patterned after the Peace Candle. The idea was first posed by Mark Hammerstone of Palmer Township, a decanter collector who approached Schultz with the concept in 1978. Schultz brought the idea to the distillery, which chose to base their second annual Christmas decanter on the Peace Candle. They spent $3,500 to build a 12-inch (300mm) sculpture based on photos of the structure. The decanter, which holds 750-millilitre (26impfloz; 25USfloz) is off-white with red and yellow flames atop the candles and bunches of Christmas greens around the base. Six thousand decanters were produced and originally sold for a $49.50 retail price. They were shipped to collectors as far as Texas, California and England.[84]
In 2003, a six-foot slab of fiberglass from the imitation wax at the top of the candle was knocked loose by 50 mile-per-hour winds during a storm. Nobody was injured.[64] James Pruznick, a filmmaker from Pohatcong Township, New Jersey, made a documentary film in 2004 focused on that year's assembly of the Peace Candle, as well as interviews with politicians, artists, merchants and construction workers about the history of the structure. It was first screened in December 2004 and made available subsequently on VHS and DVD.[65] In October 2008, fear grew that the Peace Candle would no longer be erected when Easton employees who previously volunteer to climb the Peace Candle structure no longer wished to assemble it. Those fears were put to rest the next month, however, when the trade union Lehigh Valley Erectors Inc. volunteered to put the candle up.[66]
The candle is meant to serve as a symbol for the desire for world peace. During the Christmas season the Scappoose Peace Candle is strewn with strands of Christmas lights. The Scappoose region around the Peace Candle of the World has become more and more developed in recent years, and local residents fear that the candle could be demolished for redevelopment.
Before the Schlitz Christmas Candle, the largest non-wax candle in the world was believed to be the Peace Candle, a tower-like structure assembled every holiday season in Easton, a Pennsylvania city in the United States.
The Schlitz Christmas Candle is a candle-like structure unveiled every Christmas season in Schlitz, a small town in Hesse, Germany. It is approximately tall, and is thought to be the largest non-wax candle in the world.
In 2009, Superior Court Judge Jack Panella won a $770 bid on the auction website eBay to flip the switch and turn on the Peace Candle during the candle-lighting ceremony on November 27, 2009.[68] In November 2010, Easton Holiday Committee Chairwoman Sandy O'Brien-Werner voiced doubts that the current candle structure would last until 2014 as previously projected and might need to be replaced sooner. She expressed concern at the cost of such a venture, claiming the Peace Candle cost $14,640 in 2010 alone for maintenance and operation and that an altogether new structure would cost at least $35,000.[5] In response, six-year-old MaryElizabeth Soffera and eight-year-old Katie Dietrich, two cousins from Williams Township who loved the Peace Candle, opened a snow cone stand during a garage sale to raise money for the candle. They raised $23, which they presented to Mayor Sal Panto Jr. during a November city council meeting.[69]
On January 12, 1999, the spotlights surrounding the Peace Candle were accidentally turned on, and the heat from the lights ignited a fire among several of the Christmas trees surrounding the structure. Several residents called police and sprayed the flames with fire extinguishers until city firefighters arrived to put out the blaze. Although flames reached as high as 30 feet, only the trees were damaged and the Peace Candle itself was undamaged. The incident spurred discussion about removing the trees altogether, but Easton officials insisted the fire was just a fluke accident.[58] New spotlights were installed in 2000, which lit the candle from top to bottom and focused on the Soldiers' & Sailors' Monument for the rest of the year.[59]
By 2000, the city's Christmas decorations also included lighted snowflakes on the utility poles of Easton streets surrounding the Peace Candle. The 32 six-foot snowflake decorations cost just over $10,800, which were funded in part by a $6,000 Community Development Block Grant secured by the city.[60] The Easton Holiday Committee said it was becoming increasing difficult to raise sufficient funds for the holiday display and sought $10,000 from the city council, but they were rejected. In response, six of the eleven Easton Holiday Committee members resigned in March 2001, prompting fear that the Peace Candle would not be erected during its 50th anniversary that following holiday season.[61] However, the committee was filled with new volunteers who revamped efforts to raise funds through the sale of wax candles and greeting cards.[62] The Peace Candle was lit during a ceremony on November 23, 2001, in dedication to the victims of the September 11 terrorist attacks, as well as rescue workers from New York City, The Pentagon and Somerset County, Pennsylvania who responded the day of the attacks.[62][63]
Ever since the Peace Candle was first erected, some Easton residents have been critical of the structure, arguing it is a tacky symbol of the over-commercialization of Christmas and not a tasteful way to convey a message of peace.[56][87][88] Many have condemned the fact that the Peace Candle covers the Soldiers' & Sailors' Monument, which proponents see as a sign of disrespect toward veterans.[89][90] Critics have also argued the candle is too expensive to maintain each year,[87][91] and some have claimed the phallic shape of the symbol is inappropriate.[56] In 1982, a petition was signed by 90 people and submitted to the Easton City Council seeking to discontinue the Peace Candle tradition, calling it a "garish symbol of inner-city decadence". The group wanted to replace it with a decorative display of evergreen tree, in honor of Easton's claim to be the first city in the United States to observe that German custom. The city rejected the petition after conducting a survey of public opinion, which polled 29 city residents in favor of the Peace Candle and four against it.[56]
In 1975, the activist citizens group Lehigh-Pocono Committee of Concern (LEPOCO) formed a "human peace candle" in front of the real structure as a protest against the Vietnam War. Three group members formed a triangle while another man stood on top of their shoulders, holding a lighted candle and a sign that read, "Bring the troops home for Christmas and the rest of the year". The protest marked the 10th anniversary of LEPOCO's first protest against the war when they formed in 1965, which was also held at Center Square.[73] In December 1981, the Polish labor union Solidarity held a late-night peace rally that included a candlelight vigil, singing and prayers for a peaceful resolution to the martial law crisis in Poland.[74] In 1991, the city decided to leave the Peace Candle standing until the Gulf War conflict was resolved in honor of the 500,000 American troops serving in the war. The gesture was approved after a pool of residents indicated a ratio of 10-to-1 supported it. During this time, supporters of the troops tied yellow ribbons around the candle and its surrounding fence, while protesters tied black ribbons to symbolize those who died in the conflict. The candle was taken down that March after the war ended.[75]
The Peace Candle is believed to be the largest non-wax Christmas candle in the United States.[6][7][8] Since it was first erected in 1951, Easton city officials have at various times declared it the largest candle in the world.[8][11][12] In 1972, city council president Henry Schultz declared, "We claim, and no one has ever argued with us, that this is the largest candle in the world."[8] However, the Schlitz Christmas Candle, a non-wax candle-like structure in Schlitz, a small town in Hesse, Germany, is larger at 138-foot (42m) tall. The current Peace Candle is taller than the Guinness World Record-holder for tallest candle, which belongs to an 80-foot (24m) tall, 8.5-foot (2.6m) wide candle exhibited at the General Art and Industrial Exhibition of Stockholm in 1897. However, only wax candles are eligible for the record, and there is no Guinness World Record for largest non-wax candle.[8] When the third incarnation of the Peace Candle was built in 1990, Easton officials tried unsuccessful to seek a Guinness record for it.[13]
By 1989, the Peace Candle had become so dilapidated that it was hardly able to sustain the winter weather. Strong winds in November had shaken the structure so much that the wax dripping fixtures atop the candle had fallen off. On November 16, 1989, Mayor Sal Panto Jr. announced on WEST's Voice of the People show that the Peace Candle would not go up another year because the support structure was too weak and the Easton Area Christmas Committee was not receiving enough donations to pay for repairs. The committee was now receiving an average of $3,000 a year in donations, which was used to maintain the existing candle. Panto said, "The sad reality is, this is the last year."[56] However, new fundraising efforts were started to raise $20,000 to build a new Peace Candle. Local businesses and unions volunteered their time and materials to work on it, with the Lehigh Valley Carpenters Union working up to 100 hours a week for about five weeks to have the candle ready for the 1990 holiday season.[10]
The Peace Candle of the World was awarded the Guinness World Record for world's largest candle, but the record was later given to the wax candle that was featured at the General Art and Industrial Exhibition of Stockholm in 1897. The Scappoose Peace Candle sits on the east side of U.S. Route 30 and is visible from the highway. Each season the candle was re-coated with different colors to match the time of year, with red for Christmas and multiple colors being used in the fall. The wax around the candle was eventually replaced with more durable wax-like substances.
The original plywood candle was replaced with a stronger candle made of fiberglass and galvanized steel,[39][40][41] the covering of which was stretched on steel and wood frames. It was designed by the Allentown-based firm Rileigh's Inc. and constructed at a cost of about $12,500. The flame was built out of fiberglass strips with lights that changed color in sequence, to create a more realistic burning flame than the original candle.[39] The new structure was 90-foot (27m), compared to the original 80-foot (24m). Each side of the new candle was about 8.5-foot (2.6m) wide on each side. Due to the increase in size, it was no longer necessary to place the flame structure over the bugler statue on the top of the Soldiers' & Sailors' Monument. Four new smaller candles were built and stood 20-foot (6.1m) tall and were about 3-foot (0.91m) wide on each side.[39][40][41] Special lighting equipment was added to give the Peace Candle a natural effect that would make it realistically flicker throughout the night. At the base of the candles, 75 10-foot (3.0m) tall evergreen trees with gold ornaments were placed, strung with more than 2,000 Christmas tree lights.[40]