What is a safety light?

Safe lanterns are Kongming lanterns, also called sky lanterns and blessing lanterns, commonly known as wishing lanterns. At present, Kongming's lanterns are mostly made of thin iron wire and cotton paper, and are lit by the principle of hot air balloon with solid alcohol as fuel. Many places have the custom of flying Kongming lanterns to pray for blessings during the Lantern Festival.

According to the oral accounts of the elders in the upper reaches of Keelung River in Shiliao area, bandits occurred in this area in the early Qing Dynasty. Being located in the mountainous area, all the villagers fled to the mountains. After the bandits left, the people who stayed in the village used sky lanterns as signals at night to inform the villagers who had taken refuge in the mountains that they could go down the mountain and go home, and also to report to the villagers that they were safe. Since the Lantern Festival falls on the fifteenth day of the first lunar month, villagers in ten regions celebrate the Lantern Festival every year and report peace to villagers in neighboring villages. Therefore, villagers in ten areas also call sky lanterns "blessing lanterns" or "safety lanterns".