孔明燈 Kongming Lantern

端午節的晚上，差不多午夜的時候，在成都的市中心，素以百計的人把許願花燈燃點及放到河上漂浮。另外我看見一件對我來說更加驚訝的事，便是二十多年沒有看見過的孔明燈。小時候在香港已經不能放孔明燈，因為火燒完後曾經引發山火、燒毀民居等等的問題。這次看見的是我有生以來最多的孔明燈。看官且不要說我大驚小怪吧，因為這真的是一個十分意外的驚喜！


Kongming Lantern, named after Zhuge Liang, ancient strategist in the Shu Kingdom, the area of the modern day Sichuan. One can understand why many people floated these Lantern of "wishes", as I saw the wrapping as people unfold the lanterns from the package, light up the candle inside each lantern, wait for the warm air to "inflat" and then release the lantern into the clear night sky. In Hong Kong many years ago, huts and hillsides caught fire at times when the deflated lanterns fell from the sky. They were since then banned from the territory. Needless to say, it was an extremely present surprise for me since I havn't seen this "ritual" for over twenty as these lanterns were banned when I was a kid in Hong Kong.

Video clip added! 加了視頻啦!