Chinese Lantern
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The Chinese lantern is a traditional folk art, or craft, whose origin is enshrouded in mystery, and which, not unlike most folklore, is perhaps one part fact and two parts creative fiction. Some sources claim that the Chinese lantern originated as part of the Chinese New Year festival – a sort of precursor to the present-day use of fireworks that light up night skies on New Year's Eve in Western culture – while others attribute its origin to a more religious, or spiritual, event more akin to All Saints Day/ All Saints Hallow, the eve of which was shortened to All Hallow Even, or "Halloween", where, in the much earlier and perhaps less harrowing Chinese event (All Hallow Even was considered by the Irish as a night where the boundary that separates the living from the dead was temporarily lifted, such that the dead might wreak havoc on the living by destroying crops, etc.), the first "lanterns" were simply torches carried by Buddhist monks on the eve of the Chinese New Year, in the hope of spotting the ethereal figures of Buddha and his Bodhisattvas.
Regardless of how the Chinese lantern originated – whether for spiritual purposes (the emperor at the time may have desired to honor Buddha in this fashion on the eve of the Chinese New Year) or for military purposes (Zhu Geliang, a military strategist and war hero, is credited with having constructed a gauzy-thin lantern that would float to the sky as a signal to alert neighboring cities of an approaching attack*) – it is believed to have become a fixture in Chinese culture during the Tang (CE 618–907) Dynasty, especially on festive occasions, and may already have been in widespread use in China for various other purposes much earlier. For example, legend has it that lanterns had long been hung on doors at night partly to ward off evil/ provide good luck, or to mark special events like a birth or a death, etc., and partly to light the way for travellers (in lieu of non-existent street lighting at the time).
Traditional Chinese lanterns were highly decorative, with smooth lines and plump patterns. They were prized by royal families as lighting for their palaces, and eventually by ordinary people, who received this new medium of expression in the true spirit of a folk art. Images such as portraits of historic – and heroic – figures, of divinities, and of traditional Chinese landscapes were very popular. The Chinese lantern blended notions of nature with human ideals, and thus vividly reflects the high level of Chinese civilization that existed at the time.
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Today the Chinese lantern is used in festivals especially, but it is also used to celebrate weddings and other ceremonies. The development of the Chinese lantern as a folk art parallels that of the art of paper cutting: it became a medium of expression that reflected both traditions – local, regional, and national traditions – and personal tastes. Much effort was devoted to the decoration of the lantern, especially the use of symbolic imagery (the 12 animals of the Chinese zodiac were especially popular) or pictorial writing (calligraphy) became standard features of the Chinese lantern. Lanterns hung on doors at night might contain a riddle for passersby to try to solve, and the person to guess the riddle was awarded gifts. The lantern thus served multiple purposes, the combination of which promoted social cohesion.
The Chinese lantern festival has become a pageant to rival a big-city carnival, where, instead of creating costumes to be worn, participants – groups especially – put a great amount of artistic effort into creating the most beautiful of lanterns to be paraded in the streets. Indeed, it is as if "all things Chinese" are legitimate subject material to be "embroidered" into the lanterns used in the lantern festival. And of course, other art forms such as paper cutting and calligraphy are used to adorn these special lanterns.
An infinite number of lantern-festival lantern styles have been developed, and the best of the best immediately become collectors items, while others are mass-produced and become standard lighting in Chinese homes in much the same way that the plain rice lamp is popular in Western homes. Frames vary from metal to wood to bamboo, while the covering may be silk or translucent paper. They are adorned with everything from colored papercuttings, thin glass panels in a variety of colors, mother of pearl, etc., to finely pin-pricked images (tiny holes pricked into the paper, permitting direct candlelight to shine through). Some incorporate motion created by the heat generated by the candle inside and the parts that permit rotation.
One thing is certain: the Chinese lantern has not ceased to fascinate peoples the world over, and to inspire its craftsmen to continue to preserve and renew the Chinese lantern as a popular folk art.
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