What are the sky lanterns (天燈, tiān dēng)?. At this time of the year, towards the end of the Chinese lunar new year celebrations, people in some places write down good wishes for the new year on the outside of big lanterns, along with their names, and then using the fire burning at the bottom of the lantern, makes them fly.
The lanterns go up very fast and fly away following the wind. If it is dark, the sky is full of small lights, like little stars, floating away.
We also sent up our own lantern. First, write down some good wishes
unfold the lantern
and get the propellant ready.
Large bunches (hundreds?) of lanterns were launched from the playground of a nearby school every fifteen minutes. To create a very impressive effect (pictures are very poor, compared to it)
I see a drawback to the whole thing. When the fire dies down, or sometimes before that, the lanterns fall back down to the ground. From Pingsi, they are supposed to fall into the ocean —as if that was cleaner—, but we saw many fall all over the place. Some even caught fire and landed on trees. Fortunately, everything was very wet, it was drizzling too, and there was no danger, except for your head.
We had to queue for an hour and a half before boarding the buses that would take us back to the city. It is a crowded island.
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