Traditional culture spotlighted by Taiwan Lantern Festival

2016/03/07

The 2016 Taiwan Lantern Festival wraps up March 6 in Taoyuan City, bringing the curtain down on a monthlong islandwide celebration of the Lunar New Year.

Held for the first time in the northern Taiwan metropolis, the annual event features a 26-meter-high main lantern modeled after the Monkey King from the classic Chinese novel “Journey to the West.” The design was selected to celebrate the Year of the Monkey in the Chinese zodiac.

Enthusiastic response for the festival staged on a 32-hectare site surrounding the high-speed rail station at Taoyuan bumped up single-day visitor numbers to 3.69 million—a record in the festival’s 27-year history—and is expected to push overall attendance above 20 million.

Celebrated at the first full moon of the Lunar New Year, the event marks the final day of traditional festivities. It also underscores Taiwan’s cultural vibrancy, as evidenced by a wide range of activities hosted around the nation.

Highlights include lantern exhibitions and firework displays organized by Taipei and Kaohsiung cities in the north and south of Taiwan, respectively. The events attract millions of visitors from home and abroad each year.

Also in the south, Tainan City’s Yanshui Beehive Fireworks Festival is a major draw, while equally popular is Taitung County’s Bombing of Han Dan folk ritual. The latter features a shirtless man playing the role of the wealth god assailed with firecrackers thrown by thousands of onlookers.

New Taipei City’s Pingxi Sky Lantern Festival is the most well-known event of its kind in Taiwan. It attracts tens of thousands to watch the release of an estimated 100,000 to 200,000 orange glowing rice paper lanterns carrying blessings and wishes into the night sky.

The northern Taiwan festival is ranked No. 3 on National Geographic magazine’s list of 10 best winter trips for 2016, and hailed by Discovery Channel as the second largest night festival in the world.

Source: Taiwan Today (http://taiwantoday.tw/ct.asp?xItem=242670&ctNode=2194&mp=9)