Do you know why you put candles on a birthday cake? 
Last week was youngest son's birthday and for the first time in decades he was here for dinner and birthday cake (which he asked for). I used to make our three sons decorated cakes for each birthday, and, of course, placed candles on them.
As I frosted the cake and later lit the candles, I wondered where this tradition began.
While one explanation for the cakes dates back to the Middle Ages in Germany and the giving of a cake to a child on their birthday, there is another possibility, an ancient one.
The Goddess Artemis is known as the goddess of the hunt and of the moon. Cakes were brought to her temple and candles were put on them and lit in order to make the cake glow like the bright full moon.
But what about making a wish and blowing the candles out?
Among many spiritual traditions, smoke is believed to carry prayers up to the gods and goddesses. So you make a wish (a prayer) and blow out the candles. The smoke that rises from their wicks carries your wish/prayer to the gods. Makes you want to take that wish-making part a little more seriously, doesn't it?