from wikipedia
A candle is a solid block of fuel (commonly wax) and an embedded wick (mecha in spanish), which is lit to provide light, and sometimes heat.
The heat of the match used to light the candle melts and vaporizes a small amount of fuel. Once vaporized, the fuel combines with oxygen in the atmosphere to form a flame (combustion). This flame provides sufficient heat to keep the candle burning via a self-sustaining chain of events: the heat of the flame melts the top of the mass of solid fuel, the liquefied fuel then moves upward through the wick via capillary action, and the liquefied fuel is then vaporized to burn within the candle's flame.
When a candle is put off there is still wax being vaporised for a while which does not have enough energy to ignite and which is normally seen as smoke current (formed mainly by wax particles, carbon particles from deficient combustion and water vapour). This smoke current, still containing combustible particles, can be lighted again working as a gas wick until the flame reaches the real one igniting the candle again!!
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