Soropa Blog

The likelihood is that this technological discovery is misattributed because of the historical Chinese practice of attributing illustrious discoveries to significant historical figures instead of the actual inventors. James Needham the sinologist and historian of science, who believes that the Chinese experimented with smaller hot air balloons from the beginning of the 3^rd century BC - this suggests that the attribution of its invention to Kongming is indeed doubtful. At a later time, non-military applications were employed and these became popular with children at carnivals, the lanterns were consequently incorporated into festivities such as the Chinese Lantern and Mid-Autumn Festivals, like in Pingsi in the Taipei County of Taiwan which holds an annual Lantern Festival where sky lanterns are released. The population of Northern Thailand also have a variation of the sky lanterns which are known as Khoom Loy.

Northern Thai residents use sky lanterns throughout the year for celebrations and other such special occasions. One festival in particular is the Loy Kratong festival where lovers and partners gather on the riverbanks to float flowers and candles, launch fireworks as well as releasing sky lanterns. It is considered good luck to release a sky lantern, and many Thais believe they are symbolic of problems and worries floating away.