Lantern

Lanterns are blocks that emit light.

Soul fire lanterns are variants crafted from soul fire torches.

Natural generation
Regular lanterns can generate as lamps or lamp posts above farms and on some buildings in snowy tundra villages.

Obtaining
A lantern can be mined by hand or by any tool. Breaking time depends on the tool's material.

Trading
Apprentice-level librarian villagers have a 50% or 66.7% chance of selling a regular lantern for an emerald as part of their trades.

Usage
Both lanterns can be placed on the top or hanging under most solid blocks, although some require. More information can be found at Opacity/Placement. Turtle eggs are intentionally programmed to be able to support both lanterns despite the fact this causes them to visually float.

Light
Both lanterns give off a light level of 15, which is one level higher than torches. Regular lanterns also melt snow layers within 3 blocks and ice within 3 blocks.

Trivia

 * Regular lanterns were likely to be a "replacement" version of the torch if they were added in the 2010 Halloween Update.
 * Lanterns are the fifth animated light-source in the game, the others being magma blocks, sea lanterns, fire and lava.
 * When gravity affected blocks, such as sand, are dropped on lanterns, they break as if they were dropped onto torches.
 * $$, regular lanterns are called sea lanterns.