CNY Day 14: Making Paper Lanterns
Tomorrow is Lantern's Day and it marks the end of the Chinese New Year holiday. All over Asia, lanterns fill the streets. Lanterns started off being fairly simple and only the emperor could be found with large ornate ones. Now lanterns come in all different shapes and sizes. When I lived in Hong Kong, I was obsessed with getting one of the panda head ones like this.
For younger kids, they often love to make their own lanterns. All you need is some construction paper, scissors, a stapler and a battery operated light like a flashlight or a flameless votive.
1. Take a piece of paper and fold it length wise into a long and narrow rectangle.
2. Then draw several straight parallel lines about 1 inch apart starting from the fold in the paper to the other end without reaching the other end. Stop about 1 inch away from the edge.
3. Cut along the lines, making sure to leave plenty of space at the end.
4. Unfold the paper and connect the two ends together with a staple on the top and one on the bottom.
5. Now cut a strip of paper about 6 inches long and 1/2 inch wide. Staple this strip of paper across one end of the lantern and voila! You now have a lantern with it's very own handle.
6. Now you can put the lantern on top of a flameless votive light or a flashlight like my son and hit the streets with your own home-made Chinese lantern.
What activities have you done to celebrate Chinese New Year? Send any pictures and ideas that you might have to esther (dot) lee (at) betterchinese (dot) com. You can also check-out our Chinese New Year Activities for Kids Pinterest board for more ideas too.
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