Lantern Festival

I'm still recovering!

The Lantern Festival, which takes place on the last day of the two-week Chinese New Year celebration, is hosted by a different city each year. I believe that Taipei originally hosted them all, but at some point during the past decade or so, the other cities put out the holla that they wanted the chance to party big, too. Lots of towns (all?) have their own lantern festivals, but the government helps host an official one each year. This year, lucky us, Chiayi was the city chosen to host the official festival.

[One town nearby is renown for shooting fireworks directly into the helmet-clad audience; another celebration in the north releases a mass of candle-powered lanterns into the night sky.]

We decided to walk to the festival from Joe's apartment (several kilometers) but were intercepted about half-way there by a fellow on the sidewalk. He had a walky-talky and began yelling into it just a moment after flagging us down. He had a little folding table, too, set up on the sidewalk, which was bare except for two juice boxes. After relaying what seemed to be fantastically important and urgent information into his walky-talky, he lept into the closest lane of traffic and began waving a flashlight frantically over his head, something like an excited airplane signaller.

Fortune was on our side: a towering bus with lime-green satin window curtains swished to a halt just a few feet from our delighted faces. We climbed in and settled into the extra plush seats and rode in luxury the rest of the way. The ride was free and we were soon deposited in the notable** downtown stadium next to the Festival HQ.

The rest of my tale is rife with armed troupes of boyscouts; wheeling television cameras mounted on cranes; a country's worth of illuminated tigers, pandas, emperors, and lanterns; R-rated puzzles; masses of pressing attendees; and a bounty of food ranging from stinky tofu to taro popsicles (yum!) ---- but I have to go to the grocery store now to buy more toilet paper! Awww man!!! Yes!!! You'll have to wait!

**This particular stadium (arena?) is notable because it's painted in a sort of holstein pattern. Or maybe dalmation -- the black blotches are rather spotty than... blotchy.

To see pictures from the Lantern Festival, check Chris's Flickr link here -- it should take you to a slide show. If you exit the slide show and just visit his general photostream, you'll see lots of other photo albums from Taiwan.