What are Flying Lanterns? An easy guide

Lanterns are popular portable lighting devices that have stuck around through ages of use thanks to their versatility and ability to light up larger areas than traditional lights. The earliest flying lanterns emerged as a means to protect the flame of a candle, preventing flickering of the light and the threat of extinguishment of outside sources such as wind or moisture, encasing the candle in a metal container, often in the shape of a cylinder or box with clear sides, usually made of glass, and a vent on the top. As technology advanced, fuel sources such as whale oil or kerosene replaced the traditional candle but the general design of the day to day lantern went largely unchanged, keeping their characteristic shape and illumination style.

With the advent of electricity, the design of the traditional lantern changed somewhat with the introduction of battery powered lights in the place of a burning fuel source and even more recently with the popularization of LED lights over traditional bulbs due to their significantly longer battery life, reduced size and comparable if not better brightness.

 

Lanterns also emerged as cultural symbols, with the some of the more iconic lanterns being the famous Chinese lanterns , sky lanterns that contain a slow burning waxy candle in the shape of a pad that heats the air inside the balloon-like paper shell causing them to rise into the air. Some yearly festivals see the release of several thousand Flying Lanterns at any one time. It is really a great spectacle.