What Is Pressed into the Wax, and What Is Left of It by Spring

A paschal candle is expected to be pure or largely pure beeswax rather than the cheaper paraffin used for ordinary altar candles, a material distinction that has practical roots, beeswax burns cleaner and was historically the product of monastic beekeeping.

What is marked into it, and by whom

At the Easter Vigil the presiding priest cuts a cross into the wax with a stylus, adds the Greek letters alpha and omega above and below it, and marks the four digits of the current year in the corners, speaking a formula as each mark is made. Five grains of incense, representing the wounds of Christ, are then pressed into the cross and the candle is lit from a new fire blessed outside the church that same night, the only light in the building until that flame spreads through the congregation's own candles.

What becomes of it over the year

The paschal candle burns at every baptism and funeral through the year and stands lit near the altar through the Easter season, so by the following spring it is usually reduced to a stub, at which point it is retired and a new one blessed rather than relit from itself. Some parishes melt down what remains into smaller candles rather than discarding the wax, a minor but continuous form of reuse for an object that is otherwise consumed entirely by its own purpose.