Bayberry Tallow Candle.

On the last night of the year, in some New England houses, a pale green candle is lit and left to burn down to its socket while an old rhyme is said: a bayberry candle burned to the socket brings luck to the house and gold to the pocket. This taper is made for that custom.

It wears the pale green of sage leaves, a little matte and uneven, dipped by hand rather than poured in a mold. Unlit, it smells faintly of bay and resin, sharper and greener than beeswax; lit, the fragrance rounds out toward balsam, with none of the heavy smoke of plain tallow. Since Colonial times, when true wax was costly, this wax has been rendered from the berries of the wax myrtle shrub rather than from beehives or butchered fat, and the berries yield only a thin gray-green coating when boiled, so many pounds go into one taper. Ours blends a meaningful portion of true bayberry wax into a natural coconut-wax base, keeping the authentic scent and color.

Details

• Hand-dipped taper, sage green
• True bayberry wax blended into a natural coconut-wax base
• Scent: bay and resin, rounding to balsam when lit

How to use

By custom, light it on New Year's Eve, or at any threshold worth marking, and let it burn completely to the base in one sitting. Set it in a safe holder, stay with it while it burns, and let it go out on its own. As the rhyme goes: luck to the house, gold to the pocket.