Candlelighting Poems

During the Bar or Bat Mitzvah celebration, there is often a ceremony called a candlelighting, in which honored family and friends are called up to light a candle with the Bar or Bat Mitzvah boy/girl.  Often, each person, family, or group that is called up to light a candle is introduced with a few words or a short poem.  Here are some tips to write those poems easily and quickly!

Each poem is usually only 4 lines long. The first two or three lines should describe the person being honored, and the last two lines can include the name of the person and which number candle they are lighting.  Saving the person's name for the end of the poem makes it fun for the guests to try to guess who the poem is about. For example:

I have a special aunt of mine, with whom I love to chat

She loves to shop and jog and swim, and has a real cute cat.

I love to see her often, I wish I saw her more.

So Aunt Amy, please come up and light candle number four. 

 

or

 

All my friends from Hebrew school, you guys are real great too

We study hard but you all make it fun to be a Jew!

I'm glad you all could make it to my Bat Mitzvah, whoopee!

So come on up and help me light this candle ten with me! 

 

To help you find rhymes, use an online rhyming dictionary, like RhymeZone! It really helps! 

The order of the candles usually goes like this (of course, this is only a suggestion, you can put them in any order you wish!):

1. Memory candle (to honor grandparents or anyone else close to the family who has passed away)
2. Grandparents
3. Aunts, uncles, cousins (you can call them up by family, depending on your numbers)
   
4. Close family friends
5. Groups of kid's friends (i.e., all school friends, Hebrew school friends, camp friends, sports team friends, etc.)
6. Siblings
7. Parents
8. The last one can be left for the child alone, just as a general thank you to all who have come to celebrate

A nice final touch is to print out the poem for honored family and close family friends, and present it to each of them in a little frame as a keepsake of the event.

If you are interested in how to make a candlelighting board, check out this prior post for DIY instructions: How to Create a Candlelighting Board