Candle Blessing

What to say:

Boruch A-toh Ado-noi E-lo-hei-nu Me-lech Ho-olom A-sher Ki-de-sha-nu Be-mitz-vo-sov Vi-tzi-vo-nu Le-had-lik Ner Shel Sha-bos Ko-desh

What it means:

Blessed are You, Lord our G-d, King of the universe, who has sanctified us with His commandments, and commanded us to kindle the light of the holy Shabbat.

Candle Blessing and Basic Shabbat Info. for Beginners

Technically you're supposed to light the Shabbat candles right before sundown on Fridays.  Since our Friday night services are at 6:00 pm year round we're not exactly sticklers.  If you want to light the candles at home and want to do it at the "official" start of Shabbat each Friday, the Chabad-Lubavitchers (who, of course, ARE sticklers for following all the rules to the letter) have a very high-tech candle-lighting time calculator on their website.  You can link to it by clicking this icon.                   or by going to www.chabad.org and searching for "candle lighting times."