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20 February 2007
Why are tealights called "tealights"? Truth, bladerdash or good guesses welcome.
In Germany and Scandinavia, they are used to keep tea warm. It is a sight I associate with cold winter days in Hamburg. The English have tea cozys, Northern Europeans use a variety of holders with tea-lights to keep tea warm.
that's my best guess
Here's a really ugly but traditional polish one. And they're more often replaced these days by this kind of thing, but I still love the ceremony of lighting the candle as twilight starts (around 3 pm in Northern Europe!)
You cats are so wrong. The beatniks used them to smoke tea - they sat in their pads, right, and wished they had enough bread to buy a little tea. Con Ed had turned the power off, so they only had these little candles for light. Finally, though, they would throw a bottle party and some hepcat would make the scene having copped enough tea to share and then the tealights, man, the tealights were groovy.
Tea lights were originally only sold in a blue-green hue, the wax being dyed with robins' eggs and copper. Thus they were named "Teal lights" but laziness prevailed and the second "L" was dropped some time mid-century.
photo by splunge
photo by TheophileEscargot
photo by Kronos_to_Earth
photo by ethylene
