NEW CHINESE LANTERNS

The popularity of the flying lantern is largely due to the Lantern Festival celebrated on 15th day of the first month of the Chinese New year. During the Yuanxiao Festival the children go out at night to temples carrying paper lanterns and they are tasked with solving the riddles on them.

In some regions of China, the festival is also seen the Chinese version of Valentine’s Day a day celebrating the affection between lovers in Chinese tradition and culture. There are legends a plenty in respect to the origins of the Lantern and its use in Chinese History. Most of these are connected with the Chinese and their offer of thanks for the health, and good fortune of the people of china through the ages.

One of the best known legends speaks of a beautiful crane that flew down to earth from Heaven. After landing, the crane was hunted and killed by villagers. This angered the Jade Emperor because the crane was his favourite one. He planned a firestorm to destroy the village and residents on the 15th Lunar day. However, the Jade Emperor’s daughter contacted the village to let them know of the impending action and the villagers were very worried as they would not have time to protect themselves or indeed their properties. A village elder made the recommendation that every villager should hang red lanterns around their houses and light fires in the streets and explode firecrackers which would appear to the Jade Emperor that the village was alight already. This worked as the troops reported back that the village was destroyed and the Jade Emperor was happy with the result. From that day forth the village continued the tradition by carrying lanterns on the streets and lighting firecrackers to ward off evil.

In today’s society, the Chinese Lanterns are used more and more. On Bonfire Night, weddings, New Years and Birthday or Anniversary celebrations and nowadays they are even been used at funerals and memorial services, using them as a last goodbye to a loved one.

Here at Jimmy’s Fireworks, we only stock the best quality Chinese Lanterns and they are available in 6 different colours. When set off in large quantities, they are truly spectacular. You can buy them singly from our showroom in Tankersley, South Yorkshire or order them online on the epic fireworks website.