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Updated Sunday, February 5, 2012 0:02 am TWN, The China Post news staff

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10th cross-strait lantern festivities lights up islands

The Lianjiang County Government on the offshore Matsu Islands yesterday kicked off a series of activities to celebrate the 10th anniversary of lantern festivities jointly organized by the local governments and people of both Matsu and Mawei port areas, which are under the jurisdiction of different governments across the Taiwan Strait.

Among the activities were tossing wooden kidney-shaped blocks to seek blessings from deities, hand clapper games, a garden food fair, a colorful lighting corridor, tornado lantern praying rituals and brilliant fireworks, all of which took place at the Cheishou Square.

The Lianjiang government joined forces with local temples to enrich traditional folklore festivities and closely link them with tourism promotion, so as to effectively spawn the development of tourism and economic development of both the Matsu and Mawei areas.

In this regard, as many as 460 representatives from all walks of life on the Matsu Islands will today set sail for Mawei of Fujian Province, and then return to Matsu tomorrow.

On another front, a 60-member delegation, headed by Xu Yiqing, chief of the Mawei district, arrived at Matsu yesterday for the lantern festivities. Another 315 mainland Chinese will visit Matsu as individual tourists to join the same activities over the next two days.

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