Interstellar lanterns

Last night, a friend and I were out walking in the country by our villages. We'd been out for a good hour when all of a sudden my friend said, "Woah! What's that?"

I looked up ahead, to see the amazing and frightening sight of a formation of 10 orange lights, moving very strangely, not far from us and slowly coming towards us. Their swaying from side to side made me think of "falling leaf" descriptions I'd heard before; I started to get scared.

Just then, a woman came out of the cottage we were passing to put something in the garden. She saw them immediately and called to her husband. The husband came out and said, "It'll be those Chinese lanterns."

At first I thought, "hmm yeah, Chinese lanterns, nothing to see here" but then, one of the lights went out, and started to gently float down into the field next to us.

Yes, it was a large, 3ft by 3ft square paper box. A candle heats up the air inside and causes it to rise; that's why it came down when the candle went out.

Me and my friend were very relieved. We continued on our walk and it was a lovely sight, every 10 mins, another ten lanterns would come floating over.

Having seen them for myself, and with it being Beijing Olympics now, I can kinda understand better why we've had so many UFO sightings, and them being labelled Chinese Lanterns. I'm not saying every sighting is just paper and candles, but I won't laugh so easily next time I hear that explanation.
 
T.C. said:
Having seen them for myself, and with it being Beijing Olympics now, I can kinda understand better why we've had so many UFO sightings, and them being labelled Chinese Lanterns. I'm not saying every sighting is just paper and candles, but I won't laugh so easily next time I hear that explanation.
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My question is: Who are these people who fly Chinese Lanterns all over the place, and why are they doing so? It might be a cultural thing i don't understand; there are never Chinese Lanterns over where i live (Cyprus) nor have i seen any in the US for the 5 years i was living there.

:huh:

Irini
 
And because it was chinese lanterns a few times does not mean that this is the case every time.

There was one incidence where a woman saw one of these glowing orange globes and said that it was the size of a helicopter. Pretty big chinese lantern I think. ;) Also, there was another incidence where the orange globes formed a cross and then disassembled the form and floated off into the distance.

So chinese lanterns and fireworks are now the new explanations, taking over from the planet Venus, swamp gas, the moon and your imagination.

True, chinese lanterns and fireworks are the case in some instances, but it also is now the new explanation of the skeptics.

Gotta keep up with the times. :D
 
maybe 'someone' had to throw some real Chinese lanterns into the mix, to give some more credibility to using it as an alibi for the other stories. I mean, if the stories are to be believed, suddenly the world is awash with these things :shock: ;)


Another Chinese Lantern drifts past
 
I obviously had to take into account that these lanterns were released on the opening night of the Beijing Olympics. And I have to say that although when they first came into view they would have only been about 500 meters away, there was no way to judge their size, and my friend said his instant thought was that maybe they were helicopters.

I live in a village which is one of a long chain of other villages linking two big towns over about 20 miles, and there's a Chinese restaurant in every one of them. And Indian, and Pizza houses etc. etc.. So I can only guess it could have been a family of purveyors of lovely sweet and sour, won ton, noodles and curry. :)

Anyway, I hope it was clear that my post wasn't for purposes of sowing disinfo; that it was a confirmation that there are indeed Chinese Lanterns which at first glance are scarily unidentifiable.

T.C.
 
T.C. said:
So I can only guess it could have been a family of purveyors of lovely sweet and sour, won ton, noodles and curry. :)
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Hmmm... i had a thought. Let's say, for the sake of imagination, that i am working for the PTB and my job is to conceal any evidence regarding alien visits to this planet (tough job nowadays, given the flap, so be sympathetic to my struggles :P ) So all these lights are appearing, all these people are seeing them, and i am frankly running out of ideas to "excuse" them. It happens that one night am at a wedding in China and i see that they release these boxes with lights in the skies, and as they go higher and higher and ... by goD! they look like UFOs! :shock: I immediately call the guys working below me and have them find ways to fill stores all over the globe with these Chinese lantern thingies! The store owners are told that these stuff is so great: "look at them flowing up shiny in the dark sky", and the same line is passed on from the store owners to the customers, the excitement is contagious, and suddenly the skies start filling up with Chinese Lanterns!

This is my estimation of what happened (exactly as described! :halo: ), because there seems to be a correlation between the appearances of CL and UFOs.

:cool2:

Irini
 
[quote author=Iriny]
My question is: Who are these people who fly Chinese Lanterns all over the place, and why are they doing so? It might be a cultural thing i don't understand; there are never Chinese Lanterns over where i live (Cyprus) nor have i seen any in the US for the 5 years i was living there.[/quote]

In "my" living area there also know for some weeks these -chinese lanterns- or candles active, but these ones had really been candles. But in the first moment as I have seen them it was quite shocking, because I never noticed them before.
A good guess I think, why candles are flying around are: because of the olympic games in China.
Or maybe there is for another reason a new trend set up.

vinny said:
[…]if the stories are to be believed, suddenly the world is awash with these things […]
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Well in our village we have had Chinese restaurants for more than 20 years and NEVER have we seen Chinese lanterns floating in the sky. New phenomena for damage control me thinks
 
Way FUN to make! Launch one, point up in the sky at it, and marvel as cars pull over and jaws drop.
 
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