The hidden dangers of those magical sky lantern festivals
On Monday, millions of sky lanterns were floated into the air across East Asia. In countries like China, Taiwan and Hong Kong, the practice is carried out annually on the last day of Chinese New Year, where people make wishes by scribbling them on the paper lanterns before launching them.
Gorgeous as the lights are, the tradition has been criticised by netizens, who say it's the cause of hundreds of fires across cities and countryside farms in China.
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Many of the lanterns are made of paper, and are fueled by an open-flame wax or oil candle.
There were no immediate reports of injuries or deaths from Monday's fires, but authorities have been trying to clamp down on the sale and distribution of sky lanterns in recent years, in order to prevent more fires from occurring.
The lanterns also litter the streets. Late Monday night, Weibo users started posting pictures of the crumpled lanterns in cities. After a lantern-lighting festival in Jiangsu province, hundreds of burned-out lanterns were scattered on the ground.
People's Daily also said that lanterns were crashing into high-rise buildings and trees, and landing on rooftops still ablaze, setting fire to urban property in cities.
In Haidong in Western China, a raid of sky lanterns on Sunday resulted in the confiscation of over 2,200 pieces, said People's Daily. The Haidong fire brigade director said that the lanterns often come down still ignited. With unpredictable winds, they can often blow into structures like communications wires, and have taken down power systems in the past.
The city of Wuhan in central China has prohibited the sale and use of sky lanterns since March 2014. But it seems the restriction hasn't been effective, said a Wuhan community blog, which posted pictures of a large rooftop fire in the city on Monday night.
Still, sales of these lanterns continue to rise, according to Sina. It said China's largest online marketplace, Alibaba Taobao, received 69% more searches for sky lanterns in the week leading up to the end of Chinese New Year.
And the floating lanterns have been wreaking havoc outside of China as well, as the practice has caught on in other countries. The U.K. fire brigade reportedly had to put out over 100 cases of fires over 2009 and 2010 caused by lanterns.
In 2014, Thai authorities had to resort to threatening the death penalty to people who released lanterns too close to airports. During the annual Loy Krathong event that is celebrated by millions of Thais, many set off paper lanterns too to wish for good luck. But it resulted in airlines having to cancel or reschedule flights, because of the disruption caused by the lanterns.
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Victoria Ho is Mashable's Asia Editor, based in Singapore. She previously reported on news and tech at The Business Times, TechCrunch and ZDNet. When she isn't writing, she's making music with her band
