Taipei Lantern Festival

Door guardian spirits bring great prosperity.

During the night, the east wind blows the blossoms from a thousand trees, the stars are like rain.

Human-shaped gourd lanterns.

Lovely horse carts fill the roads, flutes fill the air, the lanterns glimmer and spin, fish and dragons dance in the night.

Disney characters.

The moths and the snowy willows with their golden branches, sweet laughter floats in the darkness.

Fish lanterns created from large gourds.

Searching for her hundreds of times in the crowds, when I suddenly turn, she stands under the lantern's dim light.

Large Japanese cow lanterns.

-"Green Jade Desk" by Xin Qiji.

Eight hundred years ago, the patriotic Southern Song poet Xin Qiji glorified the Lantern Festival, where lanterns filled the night with light, and lovely ladies could be seen everywhere.

Five hundred years earlier than that, the poet Su Weidao, who lived at the height of the Tang dynasty, wrote: "Trees of fire, flowers of silver, the iron lock of the star bridge is opened. Dark dust in the wake of the horses, the moon follows the people. As we ride our horses, the plum blossoms lie all around; as we walk and sing, the plum blossoms fall. Tonight there is no curfew, I hope the time will not pass quickly."

Taking a leap in time, in front of us is Jen-ai Road in Taipei City at the end of the 20th century. The lights glimmer as brightly as they ever did, but now the road is filled with Mercedes-Benzes.

For hundreds of years, generation after generation of Chinese people celebrated the Lantern Festival year after year in the prosperous capital. The Lantern Festival carries you back to your childhood, and encourages you to enjoy yourself to your heart's content.

Sunrise, sunset, the times change, from the painted lanterns and ice carvings of Chang'an and Kaifeng, to the electrified lanterns of the Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall, the nature of the Lantern Festival remains the same. It is the joy woven together by lamps and fire, light and shadow, cars and human beings. The period of celebration for the Year of the Ox has come to a brilliant close. See you again next year!

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The main lantern to usher in good fortune in the Year of the Ox. (courtesy of the Grand Hotel)

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Human-shaped gourd lanterns.

Door guardian spirits bring great prosperity.

Disney characters.

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Fish lanterns created from large gourds.

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Large Japanese cow lanterns.

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Traditional hand-made lanterns at Lungshan Temple.