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In the dead of night, along long deserted roads in Wales, strange lights appear. They’re most often seen flickering down coffin routes.
The Welsh call them canwyllau cyrff – corpse candles. They burn in a straight line. And they lead to graveyards.
#thread #allsouls
The Welsh call them canwyllau cyrff – corpse candles. They burn in a straight line. And they lead to graveyards.
#thread #allsouls
Corpse candles are bright yellow and blue orbs. They glow along funeral procession routes – the roads by which dead bodies were carried to churchyard. It’s thought the lights are the souls of the recently departed.
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If no-one had died, a cluster of corpse candles hanging in the air, meant that a person nearby or the person witnessing the candles, would die.
The candles lit a direct route to the grave, travelling over stream and marsh.
Illuminating the path the body would soon take.
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The candles lit a direct route to the grave, travelling over stream and marsh.
Illuminating the path the body would soon take.
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The canwyllau cyrff were often accompanied by the cyhyraeth – a wailing or sobbing, or even the shuffling of passing feet.
These ghostly lights were often seen by water. The Victorian writer James Motley wrote about his experience of the corpse candles…
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These ghostly lights were often seen by water. The Victorian writer James Motley wrote about his experience of the corpse candles…
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On the river near Llandeilo, a coracle capsized. The three men inside drowned. It was reported locally that just a few days before, passengers on the Carmarthen-Llandeilo coach had seen three corpse candles hanging over the water at the exact spot where the men drowned.
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The origins of the corpse candle lie with St David.
On his deathbed, St David prayed that God would send a sign to his followers, to tell them their spirits were watched over in death.
From that day forth, the Holy Spirit lit the path of spirits of the dead in Wales.
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On his deathbed, St David prayed that God would send a sign to his followers, to tell them their spirits were watched over in death.
From that day forth, the Holy Spirit lit the path of spirits of the dead in Wales.
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