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1. Twist one end of each paper lotus petal into a tip.
2. Apply the pasted sheets of white paper around the wire lantern frame.
3. Use thin paste for the petals, and apply an appropriate amount to the bottom of each petal as you apply it, one at a time, to the frame.
4. Start below the top of the frame but make sure that the first row of petals is high enough to hide the top of the frame. Work your way around the frame until the row is complete.
5. Start the second row of petals below the first, and make sure that the tips of the second row petals cover the bottom of the row above.
6. Continue aroundwith each row, but leave the last row on the bottom for green petals.
7. Paste the bottom row of green petals with the tips reaching upwards, and then paste another row on the bottom of the green petals, this time with the tips facing down.
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At the time of the Buddha, there was a poor old beggar woman.
One day there was great commotion in the city, and she found out that the king, having made huge offerings of robes and food and bedding and medicine to the Buddha and his disciples during the meditation season, had ordered preparations for a huge lantern festival.
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She, too, wished to offer a lamp to the Buddha, so she went around begging, and she gathered enough coins to buy some lamp oil. When it became dark and she lit her small lamp for the Buddha, she made a wish: "In a future life, may I, too, become enlightened just like the Buddha. May the lamp stay lit all night long for him."
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That night, even after all the other lamps burnt out, the old woman's lamp continued to glow. The Buddha's disciple Ananda, fearing that the light would prevent the Buddha from sleeping, went over to put it out, but it continued to glow.
The Buddha came over and said to Ananda, "The old woman was poor, but the gentleness and sincerity in her heart when making such a grand wish will keep the lamp burning all night long. And on such merit, she will become enlightened in her next life."
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Thus, the lantern symbolizes dispelling the darkness and lighting the lamp of wisdom.
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