Department of Cultural Affairs

Falling on the 15th day of the first month on the Chinese Lunar calendar, the Lantern Festival is one of the most important annual events in Chinese culture. The festival is known as “Little New Year” since it marks the end of a series of celebrations that begin with the Chinese New Year. Ever since the Chinese Han Dynasty (206 BC-AD 220) it has been a custom for Chinese to enjoy lanterns on Lantern Festival, the major activity of the day.

The Origin of the Lantern Festival
 
There are numerous legends about why people light lanterns to celebrate this day. One of these legends concerns the Jade Emperor in Heaven. The ruler of heaven was once furious at the people in a town for killing his favorite goose. To punish them he decided to destroy the town in a firestorm. Before he could act, however, a good-hearted fairy heard of his planned act of vengeance and warned the people of the town to light lanterns throughout the town on the appointed day. The townsfolk did as they were told, and from the heavens it looked as if the village was ablaze. Satisfied with the scene, the Jade Emperor decided not to destroy the town. From that day on people celebrated the anniversary by carrying lanterns of different shapes and colors through the streets on the first full moon of the year, providing a spectacular view. And the habit runs to this day.

For Taiwanese, the annual festival is celebrated by holding large-size Lantern Festival around the island. Since 1990 Taiwan's Tourism Bureau has pooled the resources of local governments and the private sector to actively promote the Lantern Festival, one of Taiwan's most celebrated and colorful traditional festivals.

It has staged the official Taiwan Lantern Festival celebration in a different city every year, and this year's host is Chiayi City in central Taiwan.

2010 Taipei Lantern Festival

In Taiwan's capital city Taipei, the lantern festival is, and has always been, one of the most spectacular and most widely-anticipated events on the calendar since its debut in 1997.

Each year the main theme lantern in the Taipei festival features the Chinese Zodiac sign for that year, one of twelve animals that represent the cycle of years. The spectacular views presented by giant lanterns of various shapes hung in the streets during the annual event have added a traditional flavor to the metropolitan city, a major attraction that attracts countless visitors each year.

The Taipei Lantern Festival 2010, which once more features various themed lantern areas and is the largest in Taiwan, will be held from February 26 through March 7 on the streets adjacent to the Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall building and City Hall as well as a stretch of Renai Road. The festival not only adds flavor to the colorful night sky at Lantern Festival, it will also be highlighted by a fireworks show as well as a variety of splendid folk arts and performances.

Since this is the Year of the Tiger in the Chinese calendar, the main themed giant lantern of the 2010 Festival is a Tiger. A 20 meter-tall lantern featuring the tiger Hoki - a name which literally means “good fortune” in Chinese - adorned with a variety of floral designs combines the themes of good fortune in the upcoming Year of the Tiger as well as the Taipei International Flora Expo set to open at the end of this year.

The main tiger Hoki lantern show will run from 10 am until 6 pm every night during the festival. A three-minute show will be staged every half-hour.

The Hoki lantern design was created by Lin Chia-wei, the daughter of famous traditional lantern designer Lin Jian-er. Lin also came up with the thematic handheld lantern versions for the Taipei festivals in 2004, 2005, 2007 and 2008, the last of which featured the shape of a small bull sporting a leaf-shaped hat.

In addition, two giant Hoki tiger balloons, with one standing in front of Taipei City Hall and the other peering down from the rooftop, are also set at the City Hall building to serve as the lantern festival’s mascot.

Lee Ming-dao, designer of the mascot, says that these giant tiger balloons will bring luck and serve as guardian angels to accompany city residents during the Year of the Tiger.

The city government has also thoughtfully prepared handheld mini Tiger lanterns for distribution to the general public. Some 200,000 lanterns in the image of the festival's mascot will be handed out free of charge for the event.

"Virtual lanterns” on Taipei City Hall

Aside from these traditional handheld lanterns and giant themed Tiger lantern, Taipei City also done something different these years in the hope of bringing new attractions and new look to the city during the ancient festival.

In the 2009 Taipei Lantern Festival featured ten different themes that were shown on the outer walls of Taipei City Hall through large-scale image projection. The work was precisely customized to integrate its design concept with the building's specific architectural qualities, so that it meshed with the overall space, highlighting the many transformations of the building and its urban surroundings that take place after dark.

This year, the same and upgraded late night show feature three “virtual lanterns” designed by local artists is another major attraction one can find at the Taipei City Hall.

With high-tech projectors utilizing the exterior walls of Taipei City Hall as a screen, these works of the virtual artists is displayed in sequence every 30 minutes from 7pm to 11pm during the Lantern Festival.

The three designs feature flowers and bright colors to promote the Taipei International Flora Expo, which will open in November. The 30-minute visual art show will also feature folk songs and pop music, said Lee Ming-dao, the festival’s art director.

The public art is also interactive. The public have a chance to participate in the show as the department selects head shots of 6,666 people and turn the photo collection into a large work of art to be projected onto the City Hall's walls.
All of these electronic and traditional lanterns of all sizes, adding to the latest projection technology, and Tiger-shape themed lanterns, are guaranteed to bring a better than ever Lantern Festival to the Taipei residents and the visitors to the metropolitan.