Sky lantern
The opening is usually about 10 to 30 cm wide (even for the largest shells), and is surrounded by a stiff collar that serves to suspend the flame source and to keep it away from the walls.
[3] According to the sinologist and historian of science Joseph Needham, the Chinese experimented with small hot air balloons for signaling from as early as the 3rd century BC.
Their invention is, however, traditionally attributed to the sage and military strategist Zhuge Liang (181–234 AD),[4] whose reverent term of address was Kongming.
[citation needed]The Mongolian army studied Kongming lanterns from China and used them in the Battle of Legnica during the Mongol invasion of Poland.
[citation needed]Although, nowadays they are used as objects within traditional festivals to emphasize the unity of family coming back together during the first full moon.
[14] In Brazil, sky lanterns (balão in Portuguese) were a traditional feature of the winter holidays (Festas Juninas) at the end of June.
The June holidays tradition also includes firecrackers and fireworks, another Chinese invention; so it is conjectured that these elements may have been brought from China by Portuguese explorers around 1500.
Brazilian sky lanterns are usually made by small groups of children and adolescents; but adults sometimes joined the effort, especially for the larger and more elaborate balloons.
[16] The Lanna people of northern Thailand use "floating lanterns" (โคมลอย, khom loi, [kʰōːm lɔ̄ːj]) year round, for celebrations and other special occasions.
During the Yi Peng festival, a multitude of lanterns are launched into the air where they resemble large flocks of giant fluorescent jellyfish gracefully floating by through the sky.
[citation needed] In addition, people will also decorate their houses, gardens and temples with intricately shaped paper lanterns (โคมไฟ, khom fai) of various forms.
[18] In typical designs, as long as the lantern stays upright the paper will not get hot enough to ignite, but if the balloon is tilted (say, by the wind or by hitting some object), it may catch fire while still in the air.
[21][22] Early in 2009, a lantern set fire to a house in Siegen, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, resulting in the death of a ten-year-old boy.
[23][24] In response to the fire, Poundland, a national retail chain whose headquarters are in nearby Willenhall, decided to stop selling sky lanterns and recalled their entire stock on 6 July 2013.
[25] In 2014 (as well as many other years) dozens of flights from Chiang Mai airport in Thailand had to be diverted or canceled when thousands of sky lanterns were released into the air.
[26] In 2018 a pavilion at Riocentro Convention Center, near downtown Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, fully burned after a sky balloon landed on its roof.
[27] In the early hours of 1 January 2020, more than 30 animals, primarily apes and monkeys, were killed at Krefeld Zoo in Germany in a fire believed to have been caused by sky lanterns used in New Year's celebrations.
[30] In 1936 sky lanterns were made illegal in the Gau Thuringia, Germany, based on the Landespolizeiverordnung über Papierballons mit Brennstoffantrieb vom 30.
[31] Since 2009 it has been illegal to launch a sky lantern in most parts of Germany, with fines of up to 5000 euros being possible; in some German states, local authorities may give special permission on application.
[38] Ruth George, then Labour MP for High Peak, introduced a Ten Minute Rule bill calling for the banning of sky lanterns in the UK's House of Commons on 27 March 2019.
