Lantern Festival lights up Taiwan night sky

A performance stage has been erected at the plaza in front of City Hall in Xinyi District and will feature for concerts.

Lanterns depicting notable scenic spots of Taipei City, including the Ferris Wheel and Maokong Gondola, as well as those with religious themes featuring the birth of Jesus and visit of the three wise men and ancient Chinese deities like Matsu, have been hung around the plaza.

On display at the Taipei 101 Tower palze are international lanterns from Macao, Malaysia, and the Philippines.

At the commercial zone, there is a cheerful “peonia rat” to greet visitors and bring fortunes to businesspeople and customers.

Traffic controls

There are traffic controls surrounding the Sun Yat-sen Memorial Park and the Xinyi District from 5 p.m. to midnight until Feb. 24.

Police urged the public to take public transport to visit the venue.

A special Lantern Festival bus service is offered between the Fuxing-Zhongxiao Station of the mass rapid transit (MRT) network through Renai Road to the City Hall.

The service hours stretch from 4:30 p.m. to midnight.

Sky lanterns

Other local governments are holding similar celebrations.

The neighboring Taipei County will kick off a series of activities by launching 1,000 to 2,000 sky lanterns every evening starting tonight.

A total of 6,000 lanterns will be released into the sky for three evenings in a row during the centuries-old Pingsi Heavenly Lantern Festival at Pingsi township.

World record

The Lantern Festival celebrations organized by the central government will take place at the huge land lot of the Tainan Science Park in Tainan County in southern Taiwan.

The sponsors, the Tourism Bureau and the Tainan County Government, will display 55,264 lanterns in red and yellow colors featuring the Chinese characters and English words “Taiwan Peace.”

The county government seeks to apply for a world record for the largest number of lanterns displayed simultaneously at a same venue.

It will also hold the Yanshuei Beehive Firecracker Festival at Yanshuei township,

In last year’s festival, a record was set for the longest ever string of 13.061-kilometer firecrackers.

In Taitung, eastern Taiwan, the county government will hold the Blasting Handan parade, during which local people and visitors will use firecrackers to bombard a man who plays the role of Handan, the god of wealth.

People believe that the more firecrackers a person throws to Handan will be rewarded with good fortune.

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