One of the essential attributes Chinese New Year are paper lanterns. They can be seen in Asian countries on the streets, in homes and offices. Paper lanterns are not a banal decoration. Like almost any Asian paraphernalia, they have symbolic meaning.
Red lanterns symbolize wealth, prosperity and good luck. It is believed that abundance and success come to the place where a Chinese lantern hangs. That's why you see red paper lanterns so often in Chinese restaurants.
Paper lanterns of different colors are a popular decoration in the East.
Although red is the most popular color, there are other colors as well. White lanterns attract happiness and success, blue ones bring good luck in your career and work, green ones promote abundance and prosperity in the new year. During Chinese New Year celebrations, thousands of colored paper lanterns with burning candles are launched into the sky.
During Chinese New Year celebrations, thousands of burning paper lanterns are released into the sky. Although Chinese lanterns are associated with Chinese New Year celebrations, their uses are much broader.
As feng shui symbols, they can be an excellent tool for transforming the interior and exterior of a home, attracting good luck to it.
Paper lanterns can be powerful Feng Shui talismans if you know how to use them correctly.
Paper lanterns for home
Paper relates to yang energy. Chinese lanterns are great decorations for your home. Feng Shui experts say that paper lanterns can improve Feng Shui. They attract positive energy, activating all areas inside the home.
They can be hung in the bedroom, kitchen, office, at the entrance and on the balcony. Inexpensive and beautiful, paper lanterns add unique oriental accents to interior design. They can be used as a lampshade or simply hung as decoration.
The hieroglyph on the paper lantern adds additional symbolic meaning. Single people looking for a soul mate, or those who want to get their partner back, are advised to place a couple of small red lanterns in the love sector (southwest Bagua). symbolizes passion and romance, and small red lanterns strengthen relationships, revive extinguished feelings, and strengthen them. A couple of red lanterns can also be hung in the glory sector (south).
Orange paper lanterns make great party decorations. Green lanterns can be placed in the wealth sector (southeast), blue ones in the career sector (north), and white lanterns in the career and health sector (center and east). Small colorful lanterns can be decorated at the beginning of Chinese New Year celebrations to bring good luck into the home.
Lantern color
The symbolism of color plays a big role. The color red is identified with happiness, luck, prosperity and abundance. In Feng Shui practice, red lanterns are believed to bring family happiness. Red lanterns at the main entrance will bring marital happiness to the couple and protect them from evil.
A good marital ritual is to light two red lanterns at the same time. If the spouses fulfill it, it will strengthen their union and make it more joyful.
Paper lantern in the office. Yin and yang are important concepts in the theory and practice of feng shui, since everything in this world is constantly changing and, at the same time, strives for balance. Purple lanterns are associated with yin energy, which brings peace, spiritual awareness, and mental and physical healing into the home.
Deep, rich and dark shades of purple will bring fortune, luck and fame. In areas where you meditate and reflect on the eternal, it is good to use flashlights in light shades of purple.
The color green symbolizes growth, harmony, health, femininity, yin energy and well-being. A green flashlight next to your desk helps you concentrate. Green lanterns contribute spiritual growth and humility.
Unlike European culture, where blue is the color of boys, in Asia this color is full of feminine yin energy and symbolizes girls. Peace, tranquility, the element of water are its other characteristics. Since the blue color promotes relaxation, a blue lantern can be placed in relaxation or bathing areas.
Paper lanterns and holidays
Chinese New Year is not the only holiday when you can use paper lanterns. Red lanterns will be a wonderful decoration for a wedding or a romantic dinner. Pink lanterns will look great at any bachelorette party. Orange lanterns set the tone for communication and will add energy and brightness to any party.
Our store has the lowest prices,
convenient and fast delivery
Sky lanterns: device
Traditionally, a flying lantern consists of a lightweight frame, usually bamboo, and fire-resistant paper. A dry fuel burner is attached to the lower part of the frame, the flame of which heats the air in the dome and creates lift. The burner is made, most often, from cotton fabric, impregnated with a flammable liquid or wax (as an option - stearin). In industrial production, burners are often made from flammable polymers. The dome is made of rice paper (with the addition of mulberry wood), impregnated with an anti-flammable composition. The shape of the dome can be different - a cylinder, a ball, a cone, a heart, figures of animals or household items.
Sky lanterns: characteristics
A standard size flying flashlight weighs (on average) about 100-150 grams. The light weight and flame of the burner allow it to rise to a height of about 500 meters while the burner is burning (15-20 minutes).
Launching a sky lantern: precautions
Launching flying lanterns involves some dangers due to the use of open flames. It should also be noted that sky lanterns can pose a danger to aircraft (when launched near airports). And another possible nuisance is that an accidental fall in the city or near suburban buildings (for example, in windy weather), which can cause a fire.
Please be careful, take care of your health and property!
Sky lanterns are very beautiful and very romantic. Watch the video and photos:
(Taiwan Festival, Pingxi)
(another video about the Pingxi Sky Lantern Festival)
(British video with photographs of sky lanterns)
Chinese lantern also known as sky lantern- a paper flying luminous structure made of paper stretched over a light wooden frame. It operates on the principle of a hot air balloon and is popular in eastern countries.
For the mass launch of flashlights on Russian territory, in accordance with the Air Code, permission from air traffic management authorities is required.
Story
The first mentions of sky lanterns were found in chronicles describing the military campaigns of General Zhuge Liang (180-234 AD, honorary title Kunming), who, according to sources, used them to strike fear into enemy troops: However, the device, which is a lamp in a paper container, has been documented previously, and, according to Joseph Needham, balloons with hot air were known in China in the 3rd century. BC e.
It is also known that sky lanterns were used as a universal means of transmitting signals between the command and various army units in the Chinese Army. Later, in China and other eastern countries, the launching of sky lanterns was given a certain religious significance.
In Europe, sky lanterns began to appear en masse in 2006. In 2005, in memory of the victims of the 2004 Indian Ocean Earthquake, about 5,000 lanterns were launched on Khao Lak Beach (in Thailand). Journalist Zhou Xin (Gangzhou Daily) took second place in the Arts and Entertainment category in the most prestigious international photojournalism competition, World Press Photo, with his photograph of the event.
Device
The role of the supporting structure in a sky lantern is performed by a light wooden frame, usually bamboo. In its lower part there is a burner attached to a thin wire. A traditional burner is made from a piece of cotton cloth impregnated with wax, or from porous paper impregnated with flammable liquids. In modern flashlights, the burner is sometimes made of flammable polymers. The dome is made of rice paper with the addition of . The paper is usually impregnated with a special non-flammable compound so that it does not catch fire. The frame and dome of a sky lantern can have different shapes, from standard geometric shapes(cylinder, ball) to images of animals and popular household items.
Operating principle
The principle of flight of a sky lantern
The burner flame heats the air inside the flashlight to 100~120 °C. When heated, the density of the air becomes less, and, accordingly, its mass. The air inside the flashlight becomes lighter than the air outside, so the flashlight floats in the cold air.
The density of the heated air inside the flashlight can be calculated using the ideal gas equation
Where ρ - air density, p- absolute pressure, R- universal gas constant for dry air (287.058 J ⁄ (kg K)) And T- absolute temperature in Kelvin.
The volume of an average flashlight is approximately 0.25 m³. At a standard atmospheric pressure of 101.325 kPa and an air temperature of 20 °C, the density of atmospheric air is 1.2041 kg⁄m³. It follows that the mass of air in a flashlight with a volume of 0.25 m³ will be about 300 grams.
When the air inside the lantern is heated to a temperature of 100 °C, its density will decrease and amount to 0.946 kg/m³. At this density, the mass of air inside the lantern will no longer be 300 g, but 236 g. The weight of the average Chinese lantern is about 50 g. The total mass of the lantern (with heated air inside) is 50 g + 236 g = 286 g. It turns out that the total mass flashlight is 14 g less than the mass of air occupying the same volume. This difference corresponds to the lifting force acting on the flashlight.
According to Archimedes' law, a body immersed in a liquid (or gas) is acted upon by a buoyant force equal to the weight of the liquid (or gas) displaced by this body, where is the density of the liquid (gas), is the acceleration of gravity, and is the volume of the immersed body.
For a flashlight, buoyant force = 1.20 kg⁄m³ × 9.8 m/s² × 0.25 m³ = 2.94 N. Gravity force acting on the flashlight = 0.286 kg × 9.8 m/s² = 2.80 N .
The behavior of the flashlight depends on the relationship between the modules of gravity and the Archimedes force, which act on this body. The flashlight will begin to rise into the sky if the condition is met. In our case, this condition is met, since 2.80 N< 2,94 Н.
Some characteristics
The weight of an average sky lantern is 50-100 g. The lifting height is usually within 200-500 meters, the fuel burning time in the burner is 15-20 minutes. Lantern sizes vary from 70*28 cm to 170*50 cm (height*diameter of the lower ring)
Operational safety
When launching sky lanterns, certain safety requirements must be observed. For example, they cannot be launched in close proximity to airports and fire-hazardous structures. To avoid fires, do not use flashlights in windy weather.
Launching sky lanterns is prohibited in many countries. The metal frame from fallen lanterns leads to the death of livestock, which eats the wire along with the hay; dogs on a walk injure their paws with this wire. Candles that do not have time to go out before landing set fire to thatched roofs and even destroy entire fields. There are known cases of a power plant failing and a fire breaking out in a residential building, leading to the death of people.
Lantern launch event in Moscow
Notes
Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.
From antiquity to the present day
When you release a flashlight into the sky, everything negative flies away with it and your soul becomes brighter, and all the wishes made at that moment or written on the ball will surely come true in the near future - this is what they believe in China.
It was there, by the way, that the first aerial lanterns appeared - simple three-dimensional structures made of light paper that operate on the principle of a hot air balloon. The air inside the flashlight is heated by a burner attached to it from below, the flame from which creates a spectacular halo.
By the way, in China, sky lanterns are considered a very good gift for any occasion. In our country, wishing lanterns became popular after the release of the cartoon “Rapunzel”. Then many people learned how beautiful launching air lanterns can be, some even wanted to make it a reality. In Moscow, for example, enthusiasts held several flash mobs to launch “lights” on Borisov Ponds and Kolomenskoye. The action was supported by several hundred people. But how did these inventions come about and what were they intended for? The answer to these questions can be found in Chinese legends.
Legends of sky lanterns
One of these legends tells that in the 11th century, in one small village not far from present-day Beijing, there lived monks engaged in agriculture. They worked hard, but they were unable to harvest much. The soil and climate of these places were not at all suitable for growing rice. The people living in the village very soon gave up, but the monks did not give up. The monks, and along with them their leader Zhu Ling, prayed every evening for the harvest and every evening lit torches, which were designed to cleanse the soul and give everyone strength. Very soon the residents were freed from bad thoughts and filled with new strength, the harvest grew and life in the village began to improve again. Holidays using fire became regular. And then the monks began to use other products made from rice paper and bamboo instead of torches. The paper cube was attached to a square bamboo frame. Such structures only worked for a few seconds, because they were lit with a torch. One person held the structure, another set it on fire, the air lantern briefly flew into the sky and descended. It became clear that the burning element needed to be attached to the structure itself, which was done with the participation of the monk Zhu Ling. So a paper roll impregnated with wax was tied to a bamboo frame with wire. Then the sky lantern soared into the sky, delighting the villagers with its beauty. As a result, life in the village improved, and local residents began to grow new crops: tea and cotton.
This story is continued in another legend.
At a time when the Mongols dominated the lands where China now stands, Zhu Yuanzhang lived in the village, who wanted to organize a rebellion against them. Having received the blessing, he began to look for like-minded people. Now no one remembers how he found like-minded people and became the leader of the uprising. But it is known that one wise old man, who is said to be a descendant of Zhu Ling, then gave him his horse and a box of Sky Lanterns. The elder said that the spirit of a warrior strengthens when he launches a flashlight and, moreover, it can be used to send a silent signal. Lin did not attach any significance to the second gift, but still took it with him.
According to legend, the flashlights really came in handy for him. They were used to distract enemies. Seeing the beautiful mass flight of lanterns, the enemy mistook this event for the celebration of Loy Krathong (festival of lights) and was distracted. So, not without the help of the Heavenly “lights,” Zhu Yuanzhang became the leader of the Ming state he founded.
Many years ago, residents of a small village near Beijing began to launch lanterns into the sky; now the launching of sky lanterns has become a tradition and not a single holiday in China is complete without it. By launching them, people are filled with energy and cleansed of negativity.
From the history of sky lanterns
As for historical facts, confirming the existence of Sky Lanterns, the exact date of their appearance is not known for certain.
However, sky lanterns were first mentioned in chronicles describing the military campaigns of General Zhuge, who used this invention in military affairs to intimidate the enemy. When he released Air Lanterns into the sky, the enemies were seized with fear, because fiery torches appeared in the air, and it seemed that divine power was helping him.
Sky lanterns came to Europe in 1295. Marco Polo, returning to Venice, brought with him an idea and manufacturing technology that amazed the then elite. And in the 17th century, the tradition of launching aerial lanterns into the sky appeared in the Celestial Empire. It is worth noting that balloons filled with hot air were known in China in the 3rd century. BC e. Initially, in the Middle Kingdom, signals were transmitted between the command and army units using flashlights.
During the main traditional holiday China - Chinese New Year, or, as it is called in China, the Spring Festival, Chinese lantern festivals are held throughout the country. The holiday itself, however, will come only in a few months, but in factories in the city of Zigong work is already in full swing on creating New Year's decorations.
This small city in southwest China in the mountainous Sichuan province is called the birthplace of Chinese lanterns. It is believed that the tradition of holding festivals appeared here a thousand years ago, during the Tang Dynasty. At that time, Zigong, thanks to its huge natural reserves of salt, was a prosperous city in which very rich people lived. The status of the owners of salt enterprises can be compared with the owners of oil companies in our time. Lanterns symbolized the wealth and prosperity of the enterprise, so every New Year was like a competition: workers made lanterns and tried to make them brighter, more beautiful, more interesting than those of their competitors.
It is noteworthy that this tradition, although it has changed a little, has generally been preserved to this day. Every year the most important and largest lantern festival in the country takes place here. And Zigong himself became the main forge of Chinese lanterns. In the city, more than 600 factories are engaged in this craft, employing about 100 thousand people.
Printed sketches are laid out on the floor in the workshops, according to which craftsmen use welding iron wire to form the frame of the lantern. After securing the light bulbs inside, they begin to cover the structure with silk. Girls do this work, they cut off excess pieces of fabric, add small details, paint silk with brushes. Now, like several hundred years ago, each lantern is made by hand from start to finish.
“Essentially, this is the same method that our ancestors used in the old days. The difference is that earlier these were lanterns of simple shape: tetrahedral, octagonal, and so on, made of bamboo and paper. We have preserved the tradition, but improved the technology and now we can make installations of any complexity,” Liu Wei, art director of Lantern Group, told RG. Liu drew attention to the two-meter-long three-dimensional figure tiger According to him, it is very difficult to make such a work. “For a tiger to look most natural, more than a hundred cuts must be made correctly on the silk fabric,” he explained.
Design ideas are mainly borrowed from traditional Chinese culture. So, no festival would be complete without a dragon, mythical creature Qilin, elements of Chinese opera, characters from the Chinese classic novels "The Three Kingdoms", "Journey to the West" and, of course, pandas.
This year, the workshop premises are also filled with figures of different breeds of dogs: terriers, St. Bernards, Akita Inu and others. It is not surprising, because next year is the Year of the Dog according to the eastern calendar.
It should be noted that in their work the craftsmen take a creative approach to the choice of material for installations. For example, for a festival in 1964, the city clinic made a peacock from a thousand small medical cones, decorating them in different colors. This method, by the way, is still used today. As the masters explain, an interesting lantern can be made from anything, the main thing is that it burns. So, tea pottery, ashtrays, ping-pong balls, CDs (they are used to make dragon scales) and even vegetables are used. A rooster made entirely from red pepper pods can now be seen in the only lantern museum in China - in Zigong.
In the town of Zigong alone, more than 600 factories and 100 thousand workers are engaged in ancient production
This craft is taught both at the local institute and in special colleges. In addition, large companies often open their own training centers and recruit new employees. In a conversation with an RG journalist, the director of the Zigong Haitian Culture company, Luo Rui, spoke about the social program to help the unemployed and the poor. “We teach unemployed girls how to make the simplest paper lanterns and buy them from them. Some girls are constantly at home: they take care of children or elderly parents, so they cannot find work,” she noted.
Every year, local companies hold festivals in more than 500 cities in China and some foreign countries. Lanterns from Zigong occupy 88% of the Chinese market and 90% of the world market. But, despite such high indicators, companies continue to work towards achieving their main goal. So, in 10 years they plan to organize one hundred festivals in one hundred cities around the world and bring one hundred enterprises to the international market.