On Saturday night a bunch of Greenwich folks called the cops to report a UFO when they saw 30-40 strange lights travelling across the sky.

Turns out that the lights were actually created by a resident who released Chinese Lanterns in celebration of a birthday party at their home.

Chinese Lanterns (aka Thai Lanterns or Sky Lanterns) are tiny disposable paper hot-air balloons which are used in celebrations in China and Thailand. When they get high enough, they simply appear as bright lights and as they are all subject to the same wind conditions, may appear to be lights all belonging to a single aircraft as they move in unison.

Worldwide, it is extremely common for Chinese Lanterns to be reported as UFOs.

According to the police and eyewitness reports, a very strong wind was carrying the lanterns at a high speed, which made their identification more difficult. Skylanterns.com suggests that their lanterns not be launched in winds of over 5 MPH.

The Greenwich Police says the lanterns are legal and biodegradable, but don’t mention anything about the fire risk.

From a little research around the internet, it seems that the risk is there but negligible as the paper is non-flammable and they normally only come down to earth when the wick has burned out.