The Chinese lantern festival is a bright and colorful event in the Chinese calendar. Get beautifully crafted Chinese lanterns for sale this season as you celebrate and pray for good fortune.  

The Chinese are known to celebrate their festivals in the grandest of manners. One such festival is the Chinese Lantern Festival which falls on the 15th day of the first lunar month in the Chinese calendar. This day is celebrated with pomp and splendor all over China and different parts of the world. You can find plenty of Chinese lanterns for sale at this time of the year. The celebrations are marked by buying and putting colorful lanterns all around the house and lighting firecrackers. On these occasions, the entire city is lit up with brightly colored and ornately decorated lanterns.

Earlier most lanterns were handmade and it required skill and craftsmanship to make elaborate and exquisitely decorated paper lanterns. In those times, only the emperor and the noblemen had elaborate lanterns. Today there are plenty of elaborately decorated and intricately designed Chinese lanterns for sale that can be easily purchased even online.

There are many stories associated with the celebration of the Lantern festival. Here are a few popular ones –

The common belief is that the lantern festival is the celebration of the ‘declining darkness of winter’, where the community is able to move about at night with the help of these handmade lanterns. The Han dynasty also connected the festival to the deity of the North Star – Tin Yin.

Another legend says that the festival was to commemorate Taiyi, the God of Heaven. It was believed that Taiyi controlled the destiny of the people on earth. He was thought to have sixteen dragons which he used to inflict drought, famine, storms or pestilence. Right from the first emperor of China, all of them ordered extravagant ceremonies each year to appease him and pray for the good fortune of the people and their families.

Emperor Wudi of the Han dynasty gave this celebration special interest by proclaiming it to be one of the most important celebrations where the ceremonies were to last through the night.

A different legend associates the festival with Taoism because the birthday of the Taoist God for good fortune (Tianguan) falls on the fifteenth day of the first lunar month. Since Tianguan was fond of being entertained, followers prepare different activities to make him happy.

There is also a story that connects the Lantern festival to an ancient warrior named Lan Moon who rebelled against the reigning tyrannical king during his time. The festival was celebrated to commemorate the warrior’s sacrifice

The most popular legend associated with the festivities of the lantern festival is that of the Jade emperor and his celestial bird. Once the celestial bird of the emperor flew down to the earth and a few villages hunted it by mistake. This enraged the Jade emperor and so he planned to burn down the entire village on the fifteenth lunar day. However, the emperor’s daughter warned the villagers of her father plans. The village was in turmoil as they didn’t know what to do.  A wise man then suggested the trick the emperor into believing that the village was burnt when actually they would all just light bright red lanterns and burst firecrackers on the fifteen the and sixteenth lunar days. Thus, the village escaped the wrath of the Jade emperor and hence they celebrate this event year.

The Chinese continue to honor these legends and celebrate the Lantern festival with the same enthusiasms and fervor. There are plenty of lanterns these days available in the market. They come in a variety of colors, shapes and sizes.  The internet is an ideal place to get Chinese lanterns for sale. These days the festivities of the Lantern festival are very elaborate with exclusively designed and built lanterns in various shapes and patterns. I believe every individual should witness this festival at least once in their lives.

Choose from a large variety of Chinese Lanterns for sale at Justartifacts.net. They have a huge collection in various shapes and sizes.