Lantern Festival

Lighting lanterns at Pinsi

If you've seen Hangover II, you've got the basic idea. Its changed over the years to include concerts and other specticals, but the most eligant event of the Lantern Festival is still the releasing of thousands of paper lanterns.

Made of wax paper around a thin bamboo frame and lit with oiled paper burners, the lanterns are surprisingly large, but light. Before sending them on their way, they are covered with writing and wishes... to be carried off into the heavens.

You've got to be careful, however. Firefighters and bystanders are often called upon to help when a lantern bursts into flame before being released, chunks of burners fall off and land in the crowd, or the entire lantern drifts down onto an unsuspecting visitor. The latter is exactly what happened to me when I was happily listening to my iPod. What I thought was a particularly warm-blooded tourist bumping into me turned out to be a fallen lantern that just missed landing on my head. Carefully lifting it back up, I sent it on its way and it sailed happily away.


Pingsi Lantern Festival

Wishes written on lanterns