BOY LANTERN
This pattern is inspired by the “Boy Lantern Paper Crafting Technique”(丁燈紮作技藝) which is on display in ICHO - Sam Tung Uk Museum. Paper crafting technique has a long history in Hong Kong, and is listed as a Hong Kong Intangible Cultural Heritage. Many traditional villages in the New Territories hold a Lantern Lighting Ceremony (點燈), where lanterns for newborn sons (丁) are hung in ancestral halls or worship venues to inform the ancestors of the new births. At the same time, they convey the meaning of continuing to "give birth to a baby boy next year”. In some walled villages, a note with the name of the baby boy and auspicious objects are attached under the lantern. The Lantern Lighting Ceremony includes lantern lighting, lantern celebrations, lantern dousing and lantern burning. The lantern displayed in the exhibition is in the shape of an octagonal base and is made of bamboo strips, tissue paper, colored paper, paper decorations featuring auspicious motifs.
