Making Chinese Lanterns for Lunar New Year Celebration

Chinese lanterns are symbols of joy and hope. They are traditional decorations for Lunar New Year celebrations. It is believed that red and white paper lanterns attract happiness and success. Dark blue lanterns help with careers and work. Green lanterns bring abundance and prosperity in the new year. Colorful and bright, Chinese lanterns make lunar New Year celebrations unique and meaningful.

Also, Chinese lanterns are wonderful crafts and simple home decorations that create a cozy and relaxing atmosphere. Feng Shui decorating experts say that Chinese lanterns help the positive energy to Feng Shui home spaces, activating all zones. You can hang Chinese lanterns in your bedroom, kitchen, home office, sunroom, or entryway. Inexpensive and attractive, Chinese lanterns bring unique Asian accents to room decor and Feng Shui home before, during, and after Chinese New Year celebrations.

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Small red lanterns are recommended for home office or entryway decorating to attract good luck and bring financial stability into your house. If you are looking for a life partner, it is recommended to get tiny red lanterns. The red color is the symbol of love and passion. Small red Chinese lanterns are believed to strengthen relationships, help return feelings and make them twice stronger. A zone of love should be decorated with two small red lanterns that are good Feng Shui decorations for an area of glory.

Green lanterns should be in a wealth zone, dark blue in a career zone, and white lanterns are good for health and career zones. Small Chinese lanterns Feng Shui home entrance door, inviting positive energy into a house at the beginning of lunar new year celebrations.

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Traditional Chinese lanterns, made of paper, add a warm ambiance to room decor. Classic rice paper lanterns are white or cream. Modern paper lanterns are available in many festive colors, shapes, and sizes.

You can make your paper lantern for decorating your home and lunar New Year celebrations. You need six bamboo circles to make a Chinese lantern frame, rice paper, a small light bulb, and a socket with a long cord to illuminate a paper lantern. The battery-operated socket is a convenient choice also.

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Making Chinese lanterns

Purchase rice paper for your lanterns at art and crafts supply stores. Also, you can make rice paper. Rice paper starts with pulping rice straw by boiling and pounding it out. Place pulp inside a deckle and mold dipped into a pail of water and dry to form individual sheets of rice paper for making Chinese lanterns. However, homemade rice paper does not look as good as refined sheets that you can buy in art and crafts stores.)

You need six bamboo strips (about three times longer than the diameter of your paper lantern), two short bamboo strips for the top and bottom, scissors, rice paper, masking tape, a glue stick, an indoor cable with an electrical socket, or a battery-powered socket.

1. Soften a bamboo strip with the heat of a flame to make it more flexible. Bend a short strip of bamboo to form a circle. Place the loop into cold water for a second to reinforce its shape. Join both ends of the bamboo with masking tape. Make two small bamboo circles for the top and bottom and six large rings for the sides.

2. Take six bamboo circles and form a frame for your paper lanterns using masking tape or strings. Add a short bamboo circle to the top and bottom of the lantern, spanning the openings. The top stick can facilitate the socket and bulb, and you can decorate the base by hanging a tassel.

3. Wrap the rice paper around the bamboo frame, and join the parts with a glue stick. Cut the rice paper along the top and bottom of the paper lantern frame, leaving about an inch of excess paper. Fold it over the top and bottom of the frame, and secure it with a glue stick.

4. If any areas sag, spray a small amount of water on lanterns paper and allow it to dry. This should tighten the lantern’s material.

5. Run a cable with a socket into the top of your paper lantern, or hang a battery-powered socket to finish making a Chinese lantern. Attach a length of cording to the top of the rice paper lantern for the hanging lantern and decorating your home with exotic Asian style accents.

Handmade holiday decorations

  by Ena Russ   
   23.01.2023