Dave Rahardja on Nostr: I was wondering why one of Lego’s Lunar New Year sets is called the “Trotting ...

I was wondering why one of Lego’s Lunar New Year sets is called the “Trotting Lantern”, and #TodayILearned that it’s a translation of 走马灯 (zhóu mǎ dēng), literally “walking horse lamp”.

These are lamps that use the heat generated by old incandescent bulbs (and candles before them) to spin a translucent cylinder with illustrations around, and animating them. A popular theme includes painting “walking” horses on the animated cylinder, that move across a landscape.

I have fond memories of the lanterns in my grandparents’ house. That one had an inner rotating cylinder that projected fish, birds, and other animals on an outer cylinder.

#lunarNewYear #Chinese