Chiayi to host 2007 Lantern Festival

Tourism Bureau Director-General Janice Seh-Jen Lai and Chiayi County Magistrate Chen Ming-wen will jointly light the 18-meter-tall theme lantern and hundreds of other lanterns, including award-winning pieces, at 7 p.m. March 4 at a ceremony to inaugurate this year’s festival, which will last one week until March 11.

The centerpiece, weighing two metric tons and standing on a 20-ton metal base, is the focus of the exhibition because the next lunar new year, beginning Feb. 18, is the Year of the Pig, which on the basis of the Chinese zodiac is believed to be a prosperous year.

The Taiwan Lantern Festival became an annual event in 1990 when the Tourism Bureau under the Ministry of Transportation and Communication put forward the idea of staging a national lantern show to coincide with the traditional custom of carrying hand lanterns on the 15th day of the first lunar month.

The Chiayi County government indicated that between Lunar New Year’s Day, which falls on Feb. 18, and the end of the lantern festival, it will present 23 fireworks displays.

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