Thanksgiving and Xmas are two biggest holidays in the US. As a foreigner, they probably don’t mean much to me, except when I am invited to a friend’s place, I get to eat a lot, and of course, have a nice chat with them. However, that doesn’t mean that I am not grateful. I thank all whom I met in the US throughout my study and work – I enjoy learning from my professors, have fun hanging out with friends – watching a show or a movie, like to cook Taiwanese food and share with you . . .

January 15 of Chinese lunar calendar is a traditional festival in Taiwan (Chinese culture) when people write wishes on the huge paper lanterns and let fly, fly, fly far away. This celebration activity is especially popular in a small town called Pin-shi, near Taipei City.

When I was in Taiwan the past summer, I discovered this little DIY thing that resembled the lantern – a baby.

*If you Google photos “sky lantern,” you can see what they look like when they are up high in the sky at night.


I am sending you my best wish and I assume you probably don’t read Chinese, so here’s the instruction:

1. You need to have a few pieces of double-sided tapes; peel off and press one side of the tapes on the little triangles and tradpezoids (as white arrows indicate in the photo – make sure you do on all 4 sides). You can also pre-fold along the groove-line. DON’T PEEL OFF THE OTHER SIDE OF TAPES YET.

2. Unwrap the entire red hanging string: feed the 2 thin ends through the bead (the hole on the bead can be small; it is challenging. Good luck!)

3. After feeding through the bead, feed them through the center hole of the red paper. Remember, the side that reads the words should face up (eventually they are facing out) when you feed the strings through the center hole.

4. Once you do, also make a knot (however you want to tie it, we won’t see it from outside when it is finished) on the other side (will be inner side) so that the red paper stay securely between the bead and the knot.

5. Feed each string through a small piece of the brown tag and make knots so that both pieces connected securely with the whole hanging piece. (on the brown tags are all kinds of wishes: wish you succeed, everything goes your way, health, happiness, wealth, long life, etc)

6. I know you have been desiring to peel off the double-sided tapes since the beginning, now you can do it. You can then connect 4 sides (press the tapes hard) and shape it into a small lantern.

*This is what the finished one looks like.

I hope this instruction is clear. If not, CALL ME. (maybe you will decide to learn some Chinese now :)
I can’t give you an actual sky lantern, but I hope you will like the baby one and enjoy making it.
Thank you, my friends, for everything!


* If you don’t read Chinese but would like to leave me a message, please type in the box below and click the icon that reads “PChome.” Many thanks.