Lantern Case
Understanding the Symbolic Tradition of Chinese Hanging Lanterns
Since ancient times, Chinese hanging lanterns have symbolised a range of important cultural events and actions. They have stood for celebration, hope and rejuvenation as well as played a key role in daily life and important rituals. They have also been used to facilitate communication with the heavens, signify ceremonial activities and commemorate festivals.
Ceremonially, Chinese lanterns were used for burials, weddings and when moving from one place to another. On these occasions, the lantern frames would be draped with white gauze with four red symbol designs signifying “a hundred children and a thousand grandchildren” added. This was an expression of imparting good luck by wishing someone the blessing of a large family and respect in their old age. These auspicious lanterns were then suspended from the poles that carried the sedans which transported people during these events.
Some Chinese hanging lanterns were specifically used to act as a medium of communication with divine beings in order to make an appeal for health, wealth and Long Life. In these cases they would be inscribed with the characters representing “heavenly lantern”, “the divine lantern”, “heaven and earth lantern” or “heaven and earth divine lantern” and hung outside the supplicant’s house for a certain period of time. In other instances where people wished to express their respect for the gods, they would hang bamboo or wooden lanterns outside their homes.
On a purely practical level, since the Chinese government in early times would seldom fund street lighting, people would also use lanterns as a means of illuminating their shops, homes and streets at night. If the weather was agreeable, the lanterns would remain lit until midnight to represent consideration for night travellers
Another symbolic use of Chinese lanterns was employed by traditional scholars. They would paste riddles or puzzles on the four sides of lanterns and hang them outside people’s homes as an intellectual challenge. Those who had the good fortune to solve a riddle would be rewarded with either tea, firecrackers, beetlenut, a fan or a pencil (all highly prized items in those times). A hint of the reward to be expected for solving a particular riddle or puzzle would be included in the writing on the lantern.
When it comes to the broader cultural symbolism of Chinese hanging lanterns, they stood for the arrival of spring, the emotion of joy and the sacred renewal of the earth. The most important display of lanterns to signify this has historically been Shang Yuan, the Lantern Festival, which celebrates the return of the spring sun as the original creative power, which bring warmth back to the earth so that it can sustain its people with the rebirth of fresh vegetation.
Far from being merely a pretty decoration to add colour to the garden (as they are mostly used throughout the world in these times), when it comes to the symbolic value of Chinese lanterns, they have had a culturally rich and significant history.
About the Author
Rob Payne is the founder of Hanging Lanterns, suppliers of Chinese lanterns.
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