The "Lotus Birthday Candles" from childhood have gone abroad and become a hit, with a loud sound that can last for a year?

I wonder if you still remember the "lotus birthday candles" bought and inserted into cakes when you celebrated your birthday as a child. When lit, they would bloom with petals and the "birthday song" would play at the same time. It was reported recently that as Yiwu small commodities swept the world, the lotus candles we are familiar with have gone abroad and are highly sought after by foreign friends.

Source: Screenshot of a shopping website

Netizens found that almost all foreigners had the same reaction after lighting the lotus candles on their birthday cakes - from shock to confusion to surprise, as if they had opened the door to a new world. Their exaggerated reactions have once again attracted everyone's attention to the lotus candles.

Source: Upstream News

Source: Tencent News

1. The history of the popularity of lotus candles

In China, the lotus candle that can play birthday songs was first patented in 1999 and became popular around 2000. Since the lotus candle can give people the feeling of "being at the center of the world" when the petals bloom, it was once extremely popular and was often sold in bundles in cake shops 20 years ago. However, with the rapid development of the times, the lotus candle has gradually become a "rustic sentiment" and is slowly disappearing before our eyes.

However, after the rise of cross-border e-commerce, lotus candles regained their market share abroad. A journalist saw on a domestic cross-border e-commerce platform that a candle manufacturer in Yiwu sold lotus birthday candles at a wholesale price of only 2.49 yuan, so he started an interview and investigation.

Source: Upstream News

A staff member of the company told the reporter that their products are mainly sold abroad, but these products will not be sent directly abroad, but will be re-distributed by domestic e-commerce. The staff member said that their daily shipments can reach more than 2,000 at most. The small gadgets that only cost 2.49 yuan in China are sold on foreign e-commerce websites for as high as 18.99 US dollars (about 121 yuan), a premium of more than 47 times!

2. Ring once a year, ring once for “a year”

In China, people have a deeper impression of the lotus birthday candle - it rings once a year, and each ring lasts "a year".

This is because the lotus candle's birthday song function is too powerful. Once the short candle blowing phase is over, its sound is no longer necessary, but the sound of the lotus candle is very persistent, so persistent that it makes people collapse and even creates some chilling scenes.

A lotus candle thrown into a trash can near a residential building can make the whole building listen to birthday songs all night. If left alone, the sound of the lotus candle will continue in the trash can for two days and two nights. Especially at the last moment when the battery is about to run out, its sound will be very strange and out of tune, like a precursor to the plot of a horror movie.

Source: NetEase

3. How to end the sound nightmare

In fact, the sound system of the lotus candle comes from its buzzer and the button battery pack that provides power. Most of the lotus candles' sound devices cannot be turned off automatically. Once started, they will continue to work until the battery runs out. Because of this, people who didn't know the principle at the time tried every means to make it "shut up."

The happiness brought by the Lotus Birthday Candle comes quickly, but goes away even faster. There are only two ways to end this devilish song: one is to make it stay away from you, and the other is to make it stop.

Most people, without knowing the principle, would destroy it. Of course, destruction is ineffective. Sometimes, after people smash the fragile plastic shell to pieces, the sound still "survives" strongly, because the key part (the sound-generating device) is not damaged.

A small number of people understand the principle. For example, some lotus candles use a thermal switch, which means that the copper wire is wrapped around the candle wire. When the candle is lit, the fire burns the copper wire, and the shape of the copper wire changes, making the circuit connected and the music switch turned on. So they put the candle into the refrigerator in an attempt to end the music. However, according to many feedbacks, this trick does not work. Many people open the refrigerator the next day and the candle may still be "singing".

Source: A shopping website

In addition, while lotus candles bring people childhood fun, they have also been a childhood shadow for a few people. Many people have been injured by the sudden explosion of lotus candles, and this tragedy happens almost every year. The reason is that the plastic of most lotus candles has not been flame-retardant treated, so when the candle on top burns out, the flame may ignite the plastic. If the fire burns all the way to the button battery of the sound-generating device, it is likely to cause the battery to explode.

Source: A shopping website

More than 20 years have passed, and the Lotus Candle has lost its glory and has once been synonymous with "rustic". Many people also think it is a "three-no product". What we thought was trendy when we were young has become "rustic" today, which makes people sigh.

Fortunately, the life of the lotus candle has not ended, and it has returned to the trend in a unique way. On social media, people gathered childhood toys together in the spirit of "the ultimate earthiness is the trend", intending to find the feeling of the past in the "Renaissance".

People pursue lotus candles, perhaps reminiscing about the old days when their family accompanied them through their childhood birthdays and brought them endless happiness.