A lava lamp is a novelty item typically use for decoration and ambience rather than illumination; the slow albeit chaotic rise and fall of the randomly-shaped blobs of wax is fancifully suggestive of the flow of lava, hence the name. The lamps are available with a wide variety of container styles and colors of wax and liquid. They rose to prominence in the late 1960s and early 1970s and are often associated with the hippie movement of that period.