The Pingxi Sky Lantern Festival casts the main lamp "Fuhu" and hundreds of sky lanterns. Photo by Xinhua News Agency reporter Xu Ruiqing.
Taipei, 15 Feb (Xinhua) -- The glittering Taiwan Lantern Festival, the warm and moving Pingxi Sky Lantern, the fire tree honeysuckle-like brine bee cannon... During the Lantern Festival, various events are held in many places in Taiwan to celebrate this traditional festival.
Since February, a number of lantern festivals have been held in various parts of Taiwan, attracting a large number of people to watch the lanterns and pray for blessings.
In Kaohsiung, the 2022 Taiwan Lantern Festival officially opened on the evening of the 15th. This year's Taiwan Lantern Festival is divided into two exhibition areas, with a total of more than 180 pieces of artistic lighting on display, creating a brilliant sea of lights. The lantern festival not only breaks through the tradition, but also expands the mode of artist participation, combined with light and shadow multimedia technology, integrated in the traditional lantern, to provide interesting interactive experience for the public.
In Taichung, the Lantern Festival has also attracted much attention. With "Taichung Tiger Ya! The taichung Lantern Festival with the theme was officially opened in Wenxin Forest Park on the 12th. This year's lantern festival created the main lamp of the 10-meter-high forest king "Taichung Tiger" and extended the design of 5 theme light areas.
Many people are not afraid of the low temperature, and they are tightly wrapped up to visit the lantern fair. They take photos in front of different colored lights. Ms. Yan, a Taichung resident who brought her 5-year-old daughter to watch the lanterns, said that the Lantern Festival must come to admire the lanterns and pray for the happiness and peace of her family, "At this time, the traditional festival atmosphere is the strongest."
In addition to the dazzling lanterns, traditional folk customs such as "South Bee Cannon" and "North Sky Lantern" are not to be missed by local people and tourists. The Pingxi Lantern Festival in New Taipei City, first held in 1999, is now one of the most important Lantern Festivals in Taiwan. In the past two years, due to the new crown epidemic, the scale of activities has been reduced or even suspended, and two large-scale sky lantern display activities were held on the 12th and 15th this year respectively.
Also known as the Kong Ming Lantern, the Sky Lantern is said to have been invented by Zhuge Liang during the Three Kingdoms period, initially used to convey information, and later became a tool for holiday blessings and wishes. On the 12th, Mr. Lu, a citizen of Taipei, took his family and drove to Pingxi to see the sky lanterns. Mr. Lu said that the Lantern Festival put up sky lanterns to express good wishes and expectations for the New Year, and the New Year's wishes he wrote on the lanterns were "happy family and good health".
Accompanied by soft music and cheers, the playground of Pingxi Middle School in New Taipei City, the 6-meter-high "Fuhu" main lamp and hundreds of sky lanterns took off, and a soft orange color lit up the sky.
The reporter saw at the scene that people wrote their wishes on the sky lantern, "world peace", "smooth work", "weight loss success", "making big money"... When writing down new year's wishes, everyone also felt the strong charm of traditional Chinese culture.
Tainan "salt water bee cannon" cast bee cannon scene. Photo by Xinhua News Agency reporter Xu Ruiqing
The fire trees and honeysuckles are in the sky, and the "salt water bee cannon" in Tainan is a famous folk activity, which attracts a large number of people to rush to the salt water on the day of the Lantern Festival to taste the traditional folklore that shocks this scene.
The "saltwater bee cannon" has a long history. According to legend, during the Guangxu period of the Qing Dynasty, the saltwater plague was rampant, and after the villagers went to the Guandi Temple to ask for help, they set off firecrackers according to the instructions to drive away the plague and avoid the epidemic, which gradually evolved into a bee cannon event during the annual Lantern Festival. The launch of the bee cannon is about the more explosive and prosperous, so it attracts a large number of "warriors" to experience it every year.
This year's saltwater bee cannon, due to the impact of the new crown pneumonia epidemic, has been reduced in size and is not open to tourists to experience the bee cannon, and it was only concentrated in 15 places such as the main palace temple and the playground of saltwater middle school on the night of the Lantern Festival.
As night fell, people poured into the bee cannon firing place, and in an instant, all the cannons were fired in unison and deafening. "Through the baptism of bee cannons, I hope to eliminate disasters and solve difficulties, the epidemic will soon recede, and the fortunes of the new year will become more and more prosperous!" Mr. Gao, a resident of Tainan, made a New Year's wish in the midst of a noisy bee cannon.