What is a lantern?

Lantern is a traditional toy in China.

In ancient times, riding lanterns were called dragon lanterns, fairy candles, heron lanterns and lantern lanterns. It is also one of the traditional holiday toys, belonging to lanterns. Common in Lantern Festival, Lantern Festival, Mid-Autumn Festival and other festivals. A candle is lit in the lamp, and the heat generated by the candle causes airflow and makes the axle rotate. There is paper-cut on the axle, and the shadow of paper-cut is projected on the screen by candlelight, and the image keeps moving. Because there are many pictures of ancient military commanders riding horses on all sides of the lamp, it seems that several people are chasing it when the lamp rotates, so it is named lantern.

Because lanterns are like several people chasing each other, they are also used to describe things that keep going back and forth. In traditional Japanese literature, lanterns are the seasonal language of summer.

The Historical Origin of Lantern Festival

Many ancient books have descriptions of lanterns. There is a flat impeller on the lantern and a candle or lamp under it. The rising of hot gas drives the impeller to rotate, which is the original application of the working principle of modern gas turbines.

15 Lantern Festival in the first month, hanging lanterns is a folk custom, and lanterns are one of them. Most of them are palace lanterns with paper-cut sticks and painted patterns on them. After burning the lamp, the hot air smoked, the paper spoke rotated, and images of people chasing and changing scenery appeared on the lamp screen. There was a kind of lantern in Song Dynasty, which was called "Riding Lantern" at that time.

In the Yuan Dynasty, Xie Zongke said in a poem: "The soaring wheel rides around the city that never sleeps, the wind blows over the idol, and the frost hoofs are silent." Night defeated Xianyang fire, Wu Chong Chibi soldiers; I also remember that when the saddle was carved, the platform broke the moon. " Because there are many pictures of ancient military commanders riding horses on all sides of the lamp, it seems that several people are chasing it when the lamp rotates, so it is named lantern.