Shop for the finest red Chinese lanterns as Chinese New Year decorations here on AsianIdeas.com, or hang them on your wedding and special occasions to fill you with all the good blessings for a brand-new start, or on your home and workplace to make them a harmonious and auspicious place for wealth, harmony, and success all-year-round.
Red Chinese Lanterns FAQ
Red Chinese lanterns are a must-have for Chinese festive celebrations and each of them is an extra-special Chinese handicraft not only because they are a deeply-entrenched part of the Chinese culture, but each piece of lantern is an Asian masterpiece that is completely made by hand following traditional methods that have been handed down from one generation of lantern artisans to the next.
What are the types of traditional Chinese lanterns?
Among the types of red traditional Chinese lanterns from our selection include the:
Festive Red Lanterns. Originating as far back as 250 B.C., the festive red traditional Chinese lantern is the standard spherical lantern with a vermillion red shade, which is sometimes embellished with gold narrow bands around its surface and Chinese calligraphy writing painted around its rim, gold trims around its top and bottom base, and tassels and charms that hang from their base. The festive red lanterns usually fold in an umbrella-like fashion and the simplicity of their design artistically makes them look like 3D lanterns.
You can find the finest 100% silk or nylon festive lanterns in different sizes from our selection and, unless stated otherwise, they can also be illumined with low-wattage candelabra base light bulb and affordable as you can buy these red traditional lanterns wholesale or by lot.
Capsule-Shaped Red Lanterns. Adopted from the lantern style that is famous in the lantern-making city of Gifu in Japan, the capsule red Chinese lanterns are oblong-shaped lanterns with parallel ribbing and typically have black trims that decorate their top and bottom aperture. Their auspicious power and unique shape is usually enhanced by a Chinese calligraphy writing or artwork.
Tiered Traditional Chinese Lanterns. Designed as a stack of small festive red lanterns, the tiered traditional Chinese lanterns are an interesting Chinese handicraft because they are often the subject of chain letters, i.e., each lantern in stack is imprinted with Chinese calligraphy writing which altogether read an exciting wish for good luck and prosperity. You can use the tiered Chinese lanterns to form curtain-like lantern lights, hang them as a canopy in a fashion that invites your guests to look up and find out each lantern's exciting wish for good fortune, and as Chinese gifts or Japanese gifts for festive celebrations.
Vietnamese Red Cone Lanterns. Inspired by the shape of Vietnamese fish traps, the Vietnamese red cone lanterns are traditionally framed with bamboo that is soaked in saltwater against wormhole and moth and covered with brocade or silk that must be tough enough for stretching. Handmade in the town of Hoi An, the Vietnamese red cone lanterns are traditionally hung on the Vietnamese Full Moon Festival or Mid-Autumn Festival, which is celebrated on the 8
th month of the lunar calendar and have become a favorite souvenir for tourist who visits the Oriental peninsula.
Fancy Chinese Lanterns. A collective term for the elaborately-styled Chinese lanterns, like the palace lanterns,
zouma deng or the lanterns with revolving figures, gauze lanterns, wall lanterns, and glass silk lanterns, fancy Chinese lanterns are lavishly ringed with wishes in Chinese calligraphy writing, colorful images of the Chinese lifestyle, the natural symbols of Asia, or panoramic landscapes of Asian mountains, rivers, and flowers, and such extravagance is completed by hanging tassels, beads or precious stones, like Jade, and charms.
In olden times, the fancy Chinese lanterns seem to tell of the life and status of their user, who were the emperors and the elites.
What are the red traditional Chinese lanterns made of?
Our red traditional Chinese lanterns are framed of either bamboo or metal frame and covered with:
Finely-woven natural Silk, which lends a deluxe Oriental appeal to your lantern as this soft and glossy fabric lets your lantern shed a relaxing glow with an elegant luster when lit. While looking delicate, silk is actually a strong fabric. It is also water-impervious which makes it suitable for indoor and dry-outdoor decorating and a well-dyeing fabric so your red silk Chinese lantern and its decorative prints can surely stay vivid for a long time, although they need to be protected from sunlight to protect the fabric from damage; or,
Nylon, which is a glossy, translucent, and waterproof lantern covering that makes your lantern suitable for both indoor and outdoor use.
Tips on hanging red traditional Chinese lanterns.
Red traditional Chinese lanterns have been widely used as decoration for the Chinese New Year, Chinese festive celebrations, weddings, important places and buildings in China, business establishments in Asia, as feng shui cures, and holiday decoration even by the non-Chinese Asians who believe of their power for good luck.
For the Chinese New Year, Asian weddings, and festive celebrations. The front door and entryway, two of the most important elements of good feng shui design, can be made to look festive and decorative by hanging red Chinese lanterns from the trees on the front yard or as a string of lantern lights outside your home or wedding and party venues. Fortune, Happiness, Good luck, and Longevity lanterns are also fitting as gifts for special celebrations and a not-to-be-missed decoration on your special celebration.
For an Asian-themed wedding, Chinese lanterns designed with double happiness are perfect to channel the auspicious symbolism of red as the lucky color for love, harmony, protection, happiness, and harmony.
In your home. Red Chinese lanterns can help to enhance the harmony and prosperity in your home and they are ideal to be hung in the living room, dining room, and other areas of the home frequented by the whole family. Hanging a red traditional Chinese lantern over your house's front door is also believed to block the way of evil circumstances all-year-round.
For a happy and long-lasting marriage and in wishing for a baby, feng shui also recommends hanging a pair of red Chinese lanterns over the sides of the couple's bed and lighting them up at exactly the same time.
In your business establishment. A Chinese red lantern hung outside your store, restaurant, or office building's front door can set a welcoming ambiance while helping to invite the positive flow of wealth, good luck, and prosperity. You can also hang a red Chinese lantern over the checkout counter to increase the positive energies for cash inflow and good luck and strengthen the same by placing a
money frog,
lucky cat statue, and a
dragon statue.
History of the Red Chinese Lanterns
Custom dictates that the Chinese holidays be enlivened with lanterns hung throughout the house, on lantern shows,
yangko (a popular rural folk dance in China), stilt walkers, and dragon dances. The history of this merriment dates back 1,900 years to the Han Dynasty when Emperor Mingdi sat on the throne (A.D.58-75). Mingdi ordered lanterns lit in every palace and monastery on the 15th day of the first lunar month in homage to Buddha. Since then various activities, such as lantern shows, fair, and evening parties to guess riddles related to lanterns, have been organized in different parts of China.
1Sometimes called the Lunar New Year, the Chinese New Year is important not only in China but also in the vast majority of East Asia, including in countries like Korea, Mongolia, Singapore, Malaysia, Nepal, Bhutan, Thailand, and the Philippines.
However, the lanterns used in the New Year festival differ in appearance from the lanterns used in the Mid-Autumn Festival because they are oval shaped rather than spherical. An Asian Ideas lantern may also be used as a
Japanese paper lantern.
1http://www.chinatoday.com/culture/lantern_festival.htm
