Lantern Festival 2024 (Taipei City)

Date: Saturday 24th February

This festival features many local elements and combines traditional and innovative creativity. There are different lantern areas, including a main theme lantern area, a competition lantern area, an international friendship lantern area, a corporate lantern area, and a halo environment area. Among the festival events are a lantern lighting ceremony, stage performances, themed activities, and street art performances. The commercial districts close to the venue are involved in the festival as well. There are activities at local temples and businesses that give visitors even more reasons to come.

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The story of Pingxi Lantern Festival:

I’ll never forget my first sight of Pingxi. Rows of traditional shop houses ran parallel to the rail that brought me there, the retro snack stores, bric-a-brac shops and food stalls transporting me back to 1950s Taiwan. But the most dazzling scene came later, when my three friends and I released a sky lantern with our wishes written on it. This is the main reason tourists come to Pingxi, located about two hours by train from central Taipei.

Visitors just have to buy a lantern from one of the many shops specializing in them, and the shopkeepers provide ink to write a message and even help you take pictures as you send it to the skies. Each standard lantern, almost the height of a person, is constructed with four rice paper sheets glued to a bamboo hoop at the bottom. Paraffin-soaked brown paper is attached in the center. It gets lit, the heat propelling it upwards to join the other lanterns glowing in the velvety darkness. It’s a mesmerizing scene, and there’s also the warm and fuzzy feeling knowing the lanterns are carrying your wishes.

The tradition dates back to the Qing dynasty, when Pingxi was a remote but affluent district that had to deal with bandits. Villagers often took to the mountains to escape these dangers in winter. When the worst of the winter had passed, sky lanterns were flown to signal that it was safe for them to return. This became the Lantern Festival, now Pingxi’s most important cultural event, held on the 15th day of the first lunar month. Although you can release sky lanterns any day of the year, Lantern Festival and Mid-Autumn Festival are the most popular periods for the tradition.

Starts at €1,650pp

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