The activity of releasing sky lanterns has been passed down from the 1990s in Pingxi and Shishi areas, but everyone only knows that the sky lanterns can be released in Pingxi area. I must not know why I think of Pingxi and Shishi when I think of releasing sky lanterns?

Still Still lanterns This activity has been passed down in Pingxi and Shishi areas since the 1990s, but everyone only knows that the sky lanterns can be placed in Pingxi. I must not know why I think of Pingxi and Shishi when I think of the sky lanterns? Today, the editor is going to help you solve the puzzle and tell you the historical story, structure principle of Pingxi Sky Lantern, as well as the color and representative meaning of the sky lantern that you want to know the most. The editor also sorts out the wish words you most often write on the sky lantern!

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Pingxi Sky Lantern | Why are sky lanterns popular in Pingxi?

In the early years, bandits broke out in Pingxi and ten areas in the Qing Dynasty. Because they were located in the mountainous areas, the villagers fled into the mountains. After waiting for the bandits to leave, the people who stayed in the village cast sky lanterns as signals at night to inform the villagers who were taking refuge in the mountains that they could go down the mountain and go home, and also report their safety to the villagers in this way. The day of taking refuge from the mountain to go home is the fifteenth day of the first lunar month, which is " Lantern Festival ". From then on, every year on the Lantern Festival, villagers in ten regions will cast sky lanterns to celebrate and report safety to the villagers in neighboring villages. Over time, the release of sky lanterns has become a special folk custom in ten regions of the Lantern Festival every year, and the sky lantern culture has been passed down for one or two hundred years in Pingxi and ten generations.

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Pingxi District, New Taipei City, resumed the ceremony of sky lantern release since the 1990s. Later, the launch of sky lanterns became a well-known commercial activity far and near. There are even manufacturers specializing in the production of sky lanterns. Many tourist attractions provide sky lantern release activities every night. According to the "New Taipei City Sky Lantern Deployment Management Measures" formulated in 2012, the Pingxi Jing Tong area is a government-licensed sky lantern deployment area. In addition, the size of the sky lantern and the fuel used are also stipulated, so not every place in Taiwan can place sky lanterns!

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Pingxi Sky Lantern｜Historical stories and knowledge of sky lanterns

"Sky Lantern" can also be called "Kongming Lantern". It is said that it originated from the ancient town of Pingle, Sichuan, China. The invention of Zhuge Liang in the Three Kingdoms era. The sky lantern is also considered to be the ancestor of hot air balloons. It was originally intended to convey messages, but at present it is usually used as a tool for festivals and praying for blessings and wishes, symbolizing the success and happiness of harvest every year.

Early ancestors needed labor to cultivate, and the concept of favoring boys over girls in agricultural society was deeply rooted, so males were synonymous with labor and productivity. In the past, when we married a wife, we wanted to increase labor, so we would pray for blessings and put the sky lanterns in the temple, and write auspicious words such as "Give a noble son early" and "Get a good harvest" on the sky lantern. "Sky lantern" is similar to "Give a child" in Taiwanese oral language, and "Sky lantern" also has the meaning of "Zhexi lantern" in spoken language.

Tianlantern Structure and Application Principle

Tianlantern is a bottom frame made of iron wire or bamboo, with paper sticking on it, with a small bottom and a large head to avoid the loss of hot air. Simple oil paper is placed in the middle of the bottom frame. After ignition, the hot air inside is lighter than the cold air outside, so it will rise slowly. In addition to using wire to make the bottom frame in Taiwan's sky lanterns, the rice paper on it will be made into four sides. The person who casts them usually writes some blessings or blessing words on the four sides.

Environmentally friendly sky lanterns

In 2018, the Taiwan Cultural Conservation Media Cultural Bank found a mechanical engineer to cooperate. After more than 30 tests, it was finally proposed to replace iron wire and wire tape with paper as materials to make a full-paper sky lantern that burns completely into ashes in the air. If you want to put the sky lantern but don’t want to harm the natural ecology, you can try to put the full-paper environmentally friendly sky lantern!

(Picture source: Cultural Bank)

(Picture source: Cultural Bank)

Pingxi Sky Lantern | The color and representative meaning of the sky lantern

Basically, if you put the sky lanterns in Pingxi and Shishi, most stores have four types of sky lanterns to choose from, the basic monochrome sky lanterns, two-color sky lanterns, colorful sky lanterns (4 colors), and eight-color sky lanterns. Of course, each color has its own representative blessing meaning. As the name suggests, the eight-color sky lanterns all want to pray for blessings, and it also means that everything is perfect. However, the editor recommends choosing color sky lanterns or two-color (it seems a bit greedy to choose too many colors~). The editor used to put the sky lanterns in Pingxi and also put color sky lanterns. He could choose 4 colors, of course, it is to pray for basic health, wealth, love, and career.

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The following is a collection of prayer purposes and common wish words represented by these 9 common colors:

Pingxi Sky Lantern | The government advocates the recycling and reuse of sky lanterns

Sky Lanterns are a famous cultural image in Taiwan, especially the " Sky Lantern Festival" around Pingxi Lantern Festival in New Taipei City, attracting tens of thousands of tourists every year. However, after the fuel of the sky lantern is burned, it will fall to the vicinity of nearby areas. The remaining fire may burn the roofs and vegetable gardens of nearby homes, or even fall into the forest to cause a forest fire. Even if the landed sky lantern has no remaining fire, the waste formed by the not completely burning of the sky lantern will retain heavy metals, which may cause serious harm to the ecology.

In response to the harm of sky lanterns, the New Taipei City Government has implemented the " Sky lantern recycling " mechanism for a long time. If nearby people pick up a sky lantern base (the part made of wire and bamboo slices at the bottom), they can sell it to the store for 6-7 yuan, so that the store can recycle and reuse it. After recycling the rice paper of the sky lantern, it can also be exchanged for special garbage bags, toilet paper, etc. from the Environmental Protection Bureau. In addition to recycling and height restrictions, the New Taipei City Environmental Protection Bureau will also hold a mountain cleaning event after the Sky Lantern Festival every year.

Sky Lantern Festival Mountain Cleaning Activities-New Taipei City Tourism Network provides

Pingxi Sky Lantern | Precautions for Sky Lanterns (Q&A)

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