Lunar New Year

Taipei Lantern Festival (2017年臺北燈節)

The Lantern Festival (元宵節) is a traditional festival which is celebrated on the fifteenth day of the Lunar New Year and its celebration marks the culmination of the traditional Spring Festival celebrations. 

The festival is one that is steeped in tradition and historically featured simple round red lanterns which symbolized a ‘new start’ for the year as well as good fortune as red is an auspicious colour in Chinese culture. 

The simplicity of the small red lanterns that were put on display during Lantern Festival are something that became synonymous with Chinese culture over time while the elaborate lanterns we see today were mostly reserved for the emperor.  

These days things are a lot different and the lanterns you’ll find at the various lantern festivals throughout the world come in all shapes and sizes and can often be very complex in design.

The Lantern Festival in Taiwan is an important celebration with events being held in every city and county in the country as well as a designated national Lantern Festival which is being held in Yunlin this year. 

2017 Taiwan Lantern Festival Website: English | 中文

The Taipei Lantern Festival traditionally features lanterns created by students who took part in a lantern-creation contest as well as professionally-made lanterns which all focus on the themes corresponding to the Chinese zodiac. 

The 2017 Taipei Lantern festival is taking place between February 4th and 17th. This years incarnation boasts both traditional lanterns but also showcases Taiwan’s high-tech prowess using the latest technology for light projection and illumination which will be displayed on the walls of historic sites and buildings.  

While the Taipei Lantern Festival traditionally focuses on the display of “lanterns”, this one which has the theme “West Side Story, Taipei Glory” focuses on the history of the area between the Northern (北門) and Western gates (西門) of the city.

The festival is broken up into several different themed areas based on either chickens or eggs and there are also several different stages for performances, parades, children’s activities and light shows. 

The event organizers boast that this years Lantern Festival is a break with tradition and they hope that it will allow visitors to enjoy the historic commercial districts with the celebrations being held on the streets. 

In the past, the Lantern Festival would be held at Liberty Square (自由廣場), Sun Yat Sen Memorial Hall (國父紀念堂) or the Taipei Expo Park (花博公園) all of which have large open areas that can accommodate large crowds. 

This year the city government threw all of that out the window and planned for the festival to take place in the heart of the already busy Ximen Shopping District (西門町商圈). Instead of a large open space the organizers have decided to fill three meter wide sidewalks with tens of thousands of people.

Transportation to the Lantern Festival is quite convenient - You can access the festival from either the Ximen MRT station (西門捷運站) or from Taipei Main Station (台北車站).

A large crowd wondering where all the lanterns are... 

The issue is that with the amount of people who go to the annual festival, the amount of congestion makes it almost unbearable, especially when you have to cross large streets to visit the different sections. 

In another break with tradition, the lanterns which the festival is dedicated to are actually few and far between and the city has decided to focus on impressive light shows. 

While the Lantern Festival has only been on for a few days, the media and the internet have exploded with criticism of not only the location of the venue but the focus on light shows rather than lanterns. The festival has been compared to Taipei’s (somewhat) failed attempt at holding a “Nuit Blanche” (白晝之夜) art festival last October.

The most universally criticized aspect of this years Lantern Festival is the “lantern” that represents Lin Mo Niang (林默娘), the woman who is more popularly known in Taiwan as the Goddess Mazu (媽祖). The eight meter high image of the goddess has been designed to look like a Japanese cartoon and has ignited a lot of criticism of not only the design but the “dead-looking eyes” of the goddess who is known as Taiwan’s protector deity. 

News Link: 台北燈節林默娘長這樣 網友驚:媽祖還是鬼娃?

As the Lantern Festival was spread out over a large area and because there were far too many people and not enough to see, I didn't spend a whole lot of time taking photos this year. I made sure to visit the area where there were lanterns made by young Taiwanese students and checked out some of the light shows, but I didn't stick around for any of the performances or the parades. I didn't get many photos of the chickens or the eggs, but I think the lanterns created by Taiwan's young students were the highlight of the festival.  

As usual the city government and the organizers of the festival put a lot of work into organizing the festival and planning fun and interesting events for the people who attend. The location and the lack of lanterns however make this years event somewhat disappointing but there is always something to see and the experience of visiting Taipei's lantern festival is always an interesting one. The festival will go on for the next ten days, so if you’re in Taipei and have free time, head over to check it out. 

2017 Taipei Lantern Festival Website: English | 中文 


Dihua Street Lunar New Year Market 2017

The busiest of all the Lunar New Year Markets in Taiwan is Taipei’s Dihua Street (迪化街) in one of the oldest districts of the city. It is estimated that each year more than a million people visit the street in the two weeks leading up to the Lunar New Year festivities and that number is consistently rising with the market becoming larger each year.

Click here for the 2015 and 2016 Dihua Street Lunar New Year Photos.

This year the "street" has continued its outward expansion and is branching out to the neighbouring streets around it. It seems that with the rent being so extreme and more businesses wanting in on the action that the city has planned several streets to allow people to do their shopping and that in turn should allow for the easing of traffic on the street itself.

 Dihua Street (迪化街) and the entire Dadaocheng area (大稻埕) has a history dating back to the 1850s where it was an important centre for commerce in Taipei - especially for Taiwanese tea, Chinese medicine, fabrics, etc. The street today still remains one of the most commercially active areas in Taipei and has been preserved to show its historical roots. Many of the buildings on the street were built in the baroque style which is quite common on many of Taiwan's old streets (Like Daxi Old Street)

Check out: Love, Daodaocheng - A site dedicated to the historic area of Taipei

The street is busiest during the preparations for Lunar New Year, but considering its history, it is an important tourist attraction for Taipei and you will also find the Xiahai City God Temple (霞海城隍廟) on the street as well which is one of Taipei's most important temples with Bao-An Temple (保安宮) and Confucius Temple (台北孔廟) also nearby. There is always something interesting going on in the area and it is a great place to visit to see "old Taipei" so if you can't make it during the Lunar New Year market, you can still go whenever you visit the city!

While visiting the street it is common to find vendors selling all sorts of peanuts, cashews and pistachios as well as different types of candy and traditional snacks. There are cured meats, freshly made Taiwanese-style and Hong Kong-style sausages as well as pork knuckle. If you are a fan of jerky you are in for a treat as you will find various styles of Taiwanese pork and beef jerky as well as different styles of dried fish and squid.

Vendors also sell all sorts of dried mushrooms, dried scallops, dried abalone and something called mullet row (烏魚子) or as the Japanese call it "karasumi" (カラスミ) which is an expensive salted and dried roe of the mullet fish. I'm not really a big fan, but it is popular in Taiwan and is a sign of wealth if you are able to serve it at your Lunar New Year feast.

Candy vendor

You will also find an unhealthy variety of candy that can be in the form of dried fruit or the gummy variety. Lunar New Year is all about the family and children are an important part of the family. It is quite common to have a lot of candy available for the kids to eat while the parents are having fun and drinking Taiwanese Kaoliang (高粱酒) or Cognac and gambling.

One of the unfortunate aspects of the traditional market is that the sale of Shark Fin is still so prevalent - despite protests and a society that is changing its attitude toward the terrible and inhumane act of shark finning. There are various vendors throughout the market selling dried shark fins and while they continue to make profit off of such a bloody and wasteful trade - they are also quite aware that societies perception is changing and that the foreign community are very vocal about it which means these shop owners are not very keen on being photographed.

The Lunar New Year Market on Dihua Street is progressively getting bigger each year and the amount of people that show up in the time leading up to the important holiday has also increased exponentially. It is a great time of the year to be a photographer in Taipei and getting to the street is one of the things that photographers around here enjoy doing. Getting good shots however can be difficult due to the amount of people and the constant state of motion. You have a split second to get a photo before the people behind you are pushing and that is part of the reason why it is so exciting. 

Lunar New Year is a busy time in Taiwan and I'll be quite busy as usual. The entire country has a week off from work and I'll be taking part in the festivities with friends. The weather is looking good for the first few days so I'll be busy with my camera!

Happy Lunar New Year!  大家,新年快樂~ 雞年大吉!恭喜發財


Gallery / Flickr (High Res Photos)

Taiwan Lantern Festival (2016年臺灣燈會)

The Spring Festival (春節) is a month-long festival which begins with the Lunar New Year festivities and ends with the Lantern Festival. In Taiwan, the Lantern Festival (元宵節) is celebrated in a few different ways - The most well-known of all the festivities is the Pingxi Sky Lantern festival (平溪天燈節) just outside of Taipei and the most intense being the Yanshui Beehive Fireworks Festival (鹽水蜂炮) in Tainan county.

The Sky Lantern festival is a world-renowned festival and rated by several travel sites and news organizations as a must-visit bucket-list type of festival. I've gone to the Sky Lantern festival a few times and while it is quite beautiful, I do have my reservations about it and the planning that goes into it.

The Yanshui Beehive Fireworks Festival on the other hand is a festival that I'd love to take part in but tend to be quite apprehensive about it because I'm not a big fan of firecrackers being lit anywhere close to me. Having them exploding in every direction around me would be extremely stressful and I guess I'll add it to my own bucket-list as a 'conquering your fears' kind of thing.

Apart from these two festivals, cities and counties in Taiwan put on a their own Lantern Festivals with a national festival that alternates locations year-by-year. The Taipei Lantern Festival (台北燈會) is usually held at the Flora-Expo park (花博公園) near the Yuanshan MRT station (圓山捷運站) and is always a good time. The buzz this year though is that the Lanterns aren't very good and the giant monkey lantern seems to be the laughing stock of the Internet community. I'll probably visit in the next few days just to see and I'll likely make a post about it as well.

The Universe Tower. This thing is l33t!

This year the Taiwan Lantern Festival (臺灣燈會) is being held in Taoyuan from February 22nd to March 6th and is near my home which means the national festival is much more accessible to me than it has been in years past. The national festival is always much grander in scale than all of the smaller festivals and when you visit the festival you can expect to see lanterns of all shapes and sizes as well as spectacular fireworks shows and performances by local celebrities.

The national festival also attracts quite a few more people than the smaller festivals and the county government here estimates that over twelve million people will visit this year making it important for tourism in Taoyuan county.

Religion Section

The festival is being held in Zhongli (中壢) near the Taoyuan High Speed Rail Station (桃園高鐵站) which makes it extremely convenient for visitors coming from outside of the county to attend with high speed trains from various cities and free shuttle bus services from all the local train and bus stations. You don't need to drive a car to get to the festival and it's a much better idea to rely on Taiwan's excellent public transport rather than sitting in a traffic jam and paying for parking.

Getting to the Lantern Festival: English | 中文 | 日本語

 

The Lantern Festival this year is huge - It is split into several different themed sections and is spread out over a wide area - I arrived just after 6:00pm and by 10:00pm, the time it was about to close, I still hadn't seen everything that was on display. You might feel a bit overwhelmed by the amount of lanterns on display and the different sections available, so I'll share some of my impressions of the different sections to give you a better idea of what not to miss!

The theme of the festival this year is "Golden Monkey Offering Peaches" (金猴獻桃) which sounds quite clever in Mandarin, but probably not so much in English. The meaning behind it is simple: This is the year of the "Golden Monkey" (金猴) and the festival is being held in Taoyuan (桃園) which translates as "peach garden" so the Golden Monkey is offering Taoyuan peaches to the rest of the country which can be interpreted as a way for Taoyuan to showcase itself and the vibrant culture here.

As mentioned above, the festival is split into six different sections which are: Technology World (科技世界燈區), Religious Blessings (宗教燈區), Fairytale Dream Factory (童話夢工廠燈區), Taoyuan Legend (桃園故事燈區), New Utopia (新桃花源燈區), an International Lantern section (多元交流燈區) and the main display area (台灣燈會主燈) being the biggest and most important.

The section that you absolutely have to visit is the main display area (台灣燈會主燈) - This is the area where you will see the most lanterns as well as what organizers boast as history's largest lantern, the 26 meter tall Monkey King - an important character from the 16th century book "Journey to the West" (西遊記) - that puts on an interesting light show every half hour.

The monkeys you will see in your nightmares.

The technology section is pretty cool, but there aren't many lanterns and it is more of a celebration of Taiwan's technological and design prowess. The coolest part of the technology section is the Universe Tower which is a starry sky made of glass with lights that are constantly changing colours.

The other interesting part of the technology section is a covered pavilion of sorts that looks like it has a lot of white balloons on the roof. There are touch-screen computers connected to a pole and will take your picture and put it on one of the balloons for a short period of time. It is pretty cool and if you want to use it, you may have to wait in line for a little while if you're visiting on a busy day. 

I didn't spend much time in the children's section because it seemed to me like it was just a bunch of advertisements posing as lanterns and was probably just a section that was put up to make the corporate sponsors of the event happy.

The international section was a long walk away from the other sections and had some lanterns from Hong Kong and Macau. There was also a section set up nearby showcasing Taiwanese Indigenous culture with lanterns dedicated to each of Taiwan's recognized Indigenous groups as well as life sized lanterns of a person from each tribe wearing their traditional attire. 

The religion section irritated me a bit, not because the lanterns sucked (some of them were really cool), but because some of the religious people that were very eager to "have a talk" with the people browsing the sections. Each time I passed by a temple or area set up by a specific religious group they attempt to call me over to try make small talk and then want me to do something.

The worst of all of them however had to be the Christians who figured that because I was a white guy (just like Jesus) I must be a Christian. They followed me around a bit and no matter how much I ignored them they kept trying. I felt like I had to quickly escape the religion section, which sucked because there were some pretty cool lanterns inside.

My personal favourite lanterns

I didn't have enough time to visit the New Utopia or the Fairytale Dream factory, but I kind of regret not visiting the New Utopia as it seems the section had some lanterns on the water and they would have made for some nice photos.

The festival can be a bit intimidating with it sheer size and if you are visiting on a busy day, then I highly doubt you'll be able to see as much as I was able to. 

Unfortunately when the festival started, the weather didn't really cooperate and the crowds weren't as large as what was originally expected. This changed over the weekend with nicer weather and crowds of people numbering in the hundreds of thousands. The weather for the next few days seems like it is going to be quite nice, so I hope a lot of people take the time to come over to Taoyuan to enjoy the Lantern Festival and of course all of the good food and fun that Taoyuan has to offer.

Happy Lantern Festival Taiwan!

I'm going to visit the Taipei Lantern Festival in a few days to check out what Taiwan's 'greatest' city has prepared. I also want to see just how ugly the giant monkey is as it has become quite infamous online over the past few weeks!

I've uploaded quite a few photos for this post and you're welcome to browse through the gallery below - If you want to see them in a more convenient way, click the link for my Flickr below to see them all on a single page with larger sizes.  

I'll end by wishing everyone a Happy Lantern Festival (祝大家元宵節快樂) and especially for all my friends and followers here in Taiwan - let's hope that the year of the Golden Monkey is a much safer and prosperous one for this beautiful little country than last year! 

2016 Taiwan Lantern Festival - English | 中文