Lantern Fest

We were traveling home on Saturday evening after a wonderful family gathering. Suddenly, traffic on I-25 in Colorado began to slow to a crawl. Brake lights flashed on ahead of us. Then, we saw an invasion of tiny UFO's rising over the interstate. We were in awe of all of the little lights. They were coming from somewhere to the east of us, and were rising and moving in an arc above us. Hundreds of them!

What the....?

I grabbed my phone. First, I tried to take a picture. Didn't work. Then, I began searching on the Internet. (I am truly amazed at the wealth of information at my fingertips almost anywhere I go!)
It turns out that we were seeing lanterns from a local "Lantern Fest".

picture from the Internet

I was fascinated by the tiny, flickering lights, suddenly adding thousands hundreds of new stars in the night sky. It was mesmerizing.

Attendees at the sold out festival (an extra day was added, and it was also sold out) come for music, food and fun, and then as the sun sets, get ready to light their lanterns from many torches set out on the grounds. In looking at videos of other lantern fests, some people write messages to loved ones, wishes for the coming year, fondest dreams, regrets, or whatever on the rice paper lantern, and then once the fuel has warmed the envelope, they let it lift to the sky.

Another picture from the Internet

Living in dry country, with an on-going drought, you can guess my concerns. In the car we were all talking about the possible dangers of wildfires set off my any one of the lanterns. However, more reading online came up with the information that the biodegradable lanterns have a fuel cell that burns for a shorter time than it would take for the lantern to return to the ground. Additionally, numerous balloon chaser cars follow and collect 90% or more of the lanterns when they land.

Here is one last picture from the Internet that was representative of the beauty we were treated with on our trip. What fun!