Hot air balloon scare in Stranocum village turns out to be Chinese lantern

IT was the sort of sight that had fingers pointing skywards.No one could quite make up their minds whether the strange object hundreds of feet into the air was a UFO, some sort of light aircraft or a hot air balloon.

Bright orange in colour, the object floating along the star-studded sky appeared to have a flame underneath, adding to the intrigue and curiosity.

The phenomenon appeared last Wednesday night in Stranocum and its presence certainly caused locals to scratch their heads in wonder.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

And when the 'object' drfited even higher almost becoming just a red dot before a parachute opened and tumbled to the ground several field lengths along from the village's Playing Fields, the need to ascertain just exactly what was taking place became more fervent.

The thought of someone abandoning a hot-air balloon and having to parachute down to earth in darkness possibly injuring themselves in the process, had to be looked into.

Donning Welly boots and arming themselves with torches several residents took to the fields in search of the mystery 'jumper' without any success.

And with the news that two American balloonists had become lost in a round Britain exercise, speculation mounted that Stranocum could perhaps become the focus for a much bigger story than first anticipated.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

The PSNI were alerted and after initial disbelief about the veracity of the story, action was taken given the fact that the report contained details of a suspicious nature.

By this stage, many were made aware of the incident, but after an hour or two, the truth finally became clear - the object in the sky was nothing sinister, merely a Chinese lantern which someone locally had set off causing all the confusion.

Needless to say those involved were somewhat sheepish in their mistaken belief that what they had seen was someone parachuting from on high.

However, the mistake is nothing new.

Hundreds of people throughout the United Kingdom are fooled into thinking that the Chinese lanterns are UFO's and the particular worry is that when the lantern does fall to earth in a field, that livestock could be placed in danger if they ate it.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

The identity of the person who set it off is not known - at least it won't be published at this stage!

The Chinese lantern originated as an improvement over the more simple, more natural – and surely, more widespread – source of lighting: the open flame.

Today the Chinese lantern is used in festivals especially, but it is also used to celebrate weddings and other ceremonies.

The development of the Chinese lantern as a folk art parallels that of the art of paper cutting: it became a medium of expression that reflected both traditions – local, regional, and national traditions – and personal tastes.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

Much effort was devoted to the decoration of the lantern, especially the use of symbolic imagery (the 12 animals of the Chinese zodiac were especially popular) or pictorial writing (calligraphy) became standard features of the Chinese lantern.

Lanterns hung on doors at night might contain a riddle for passersby to try to solve, and the person to guess the riddle was awarded gifts. The lantern thus served multiple purposes, the combination of which promoted social cohesion.

Related topics: