The Taiwan Lantern Fesitval

The annual Taiwan Lantern Festival was held in Taizhong this year and David and I got to go on Thursday night. The Lantern Festival is traditionally the 15th day after the New Year. This particular festival however lasted for 10 days. The lanterns and lights were amazing both in number and craftmanship. We first arrived when it was still light and everything looked colorful and fun. However, as darkness came and the lights came up it was truly amazing.

 The festival covered at least 1/2 square mile. I could not walk the entire thing and we missed a lot on one side. I heard we missed the huge castle complete with dragon and the pirate ship in the sky.

This bird's wings flapped.

I was informed this was Not a fish. It is a Carp!

This reminded me of the festival of trees in that each company, organization, religion or business designed and put together their own display, some small and some huge. I could not tell if there was a theme for the festival. The motto was "Tiawan and Tiazhong rise together" (rough translation). There were awards given though we did not understand how they were judged.

 I liked the phoenix. Notice the people in the foreground to get some idea of the size of these displays.

David chose a picture with a typical Chinese look.

He was appalled that I chose mine with a minion.

 There was a large stage in the center and different acts and performances all evening. I enjoyed the dragon though we only saw the rehearsal. The performance was later, after dark, when the dragon lit up and breathed fire.

 After it was totally dark the fireworks started. Happy New Year every said. The Chinese know their fireworks!

David and I worked at information booth #9. Sister Xie and Elder and Sister Jan worked with us (and 5 Chinese volunteers). I got to wear a "Helping Hands" sticker. So fun, though I didn't do much because of the language barrier. David was more useful.

This is the Year of the Goat so this HUGE goat was in the center by the stage. It lit up before each performance as seen in the video below.