Baby it’s cold outside! It’s the Holiday Season and the perfect time to light up your home from the outside. Create beautiful one-of-a-kind frozen sculptures with Arctic Ice lanterns or Globe Ice Lanterns. Ice lanterns are simply a mold that’s filled with water and frozen. Arctic Ice Lanterns use a plastic mold and the Ice Globe Lanterns are created by filling a special bladder and setting on a freezing base. The trick to making Ice Lanterns comes during the freezing process. Pouring out the still liquid water after the outside has frozen creates a cavity perfect for a candle. Use a luminary base to turn the ice lantern into a stunning winter showpiece.
Make Your Own Ice Lantern!
The instructions are quite simple but there is an infinite number of unique styles you can create just by adding different food colorings and accents!
• Freeze holly berries and fresh greens in the mold
• Use food coloring to create a themed look, perhaps your favorite sports team
• Nearly any object can be frozen in an ice lantern
• Let your imagination go
The possibilities are endless! Even if you consider yourself artistically challenged, you can create beautiful ice sculptures. Line your walkway, place on the edge of your steps to light the way!
History of Ice Lanterns
According to TCDailyPlanet, historically, ice lanterns are a natural product of life along the edge of the Arctic Circle. In China, Russia, Lapland, Sweden, Norway and Iceland, lanterns were initially functional, serving as beacons on fishing boats and lamps on paths and streets of villages. The amount of daylight in the Arctic Circle in December dwindles to four hours a day.
Lanterns are part of Scandinavian immigrants’ holiday traditions, which trace back to the observance of Winter Solstice (December 21, the shortest day of the year). The Norse feast of Juul became the Christian Yuletide, and along with it came remnants of the culture, including ice lanterns for the holidays.
From the website reporting the challenge met by State College in Pennsylvania:
State College residents broke the world record for the largest display of ice lanterns, or luminaries, in an event called “Light Up State College.” Organized in part by the Make Space, Centre Foundation, and Knight Foundation, the group rallied residents together to create ice luminaries in their homes using kits distributed from local businesses.
The previous world record of 2,651 luminaries was set in 2013 by the residents of Vuollerim, Sweden. Over one thousand State College residents smashed that record by creating 5,622 luminaries.
The experts at Gertens are always available to answer your questions!
