What you are seeing

The light a family keeps

There is no single candle for remembering. Each tradition keeps its own — so a home lights the one that belongs to it, and every visitor sees that family's light, never their own tradition's.

• A candle

  Where no tradition is declared, and in Catholic and Orthodox homes

• Stones

  Jewish homes — each visitor leaves one, and the pile grows as people come

• A diya

  Hindu homes — an oil lamp, its wick lying in the oil

• Incense

  Vietnamese, Japanese and Buddhist homes — it glows, it never burns tall

• A warm light

  Where the rite is not a flame at all — and for anyone who keeps no rite

This is only what a home lights by default. A family may set their space however they wish; nothing here is a rule about anyone's own place.

Still with us, and in eternal light

A home never says this in words. Shape and colour carry it, so that no one's name sits beside a label.

Still with us

A circle, in steady cool white.

In eternal light

A rounded plaque, warm as a kept flame.