Lantern festival has many manifestations in Taiwan: there’s artistic, decorative lanterns on display in Taipei, sky lanterns that get lifted off the ground by a ball of fire in Pingxi, and floating lanterns on Love River in Kaohsiung, just to name a few. This year was the year of the rooster, so everything was rooster themed. I got to see the Taipei Lantern Festival and the Pingxi Sky Lantern Festival this year, two very different events. The lantern festival was one of the events I was most looking forward to experiencing in Taiwan before I came, so it was cool to finally see it in person.

The Taipei Lantern Festival spanned a section of the city around Ximen for about a week. George and I went on a weeknight. There were walking maps displaying the route to see all of the featured lanterns and light shows. The light shows were light projections on buildings set to music, and they usually lasted about 5 minutes. There were three that we saw along the walking route. The best part of Taipei’s festival was seeing the winners of the lantern contest on display. Giant, multi-colored, ornate roosters let off a soft glow. You had to stand there and just appreciate how long it took people to put these together. The winners of the elementary school division were suspiciously good… I think some crafty parents got involved. On the other hand, the college students’ roosters were a little simplistic. I guess they had to study. No time to make roosters when you need to graduate college!

As we walked through the lit-up rooster masterpieces, an outlier stuck out. It was a massive display of ant lanterns. Large ants were climbing up a building and playing basketball… it sounds strange, but it was actually really beautiful. The unique shape of the ants drew your eyes to the display, and the soft yellow light and red-brown color scheme kept your attention there. Not to mention, it was such a bizarre depiction. I think the ants were my favorite display at the festival.

Another stage featured both roosters and monkeys (last year’s animal) as some kind of a “hand off” of the animals. The monkey lanterns actually looked a little creepy, so I was glad it was the year of the rooster. The stately birds were truly pieces of art.

The following Saturday, I went with Howard, Brian, and Julia to the Pingxi Lantern Festival, one of the most famous lantern festivals in the world. In ancient times, the lanterns were used to send military information, later being used by farmers to pray for a good harvest and a son. Now people write their wishes, hopes, and dreams on the side of the lantern and watch them slowly rise and get taken by the wind, creating a beautiful display of glowing lights. The Pingxi Sky Lantern Festival was even featured on the Discovery Channel’s show “Fantastic Festivals of the World,” perhaps why it now has so many visitors. In the days leading up to the festival, we were told horror story after horror story about how it would be absolutely packed, we’d have to wait hours to get on a bus, we’d be stranded in Pingxi, etc. But that didn’t phase us… we would see the lantern festival.

We met up for lunch and were ready to take on the crowds. However long it took, we would get there. We went to a bus stop and asked an employee if this was the best way to get there. He informed us that it was much better to leave from the bus stop at the zoo. In doing so, another English speaker in line asked us about directions. Her name was Grace, she was from California, and she was here visiting a friend who couldn’t make it to the lantern festival, so she was traveling alone. The main reasons she was visiting Taiwan now was specifically to see the lantern festival, and she wasn’t going to miss it just because her friend couldn’t go. We adopted her into our group, happy to have another person in tow on our way to the zoo bus stop. As we approached the bus area, we braced ourselves for what people said would be “hours,” but it was set up in an extremely organized way. You stand in one line for the bus to Pingxi, pay at the front of the line instead of on the bus, and get ushered into one of the many, many buses departing for the lantern festival. We all got a seat and were on the bus within 10 minutes. The bus drove up the mountain, taking twists and turns with stride, and finally we approached Pingxi. We could already see a few specks floating into the sky as we approached, and we knew: lanterns!

We hopped off the bus, and since we were so early, decided to check out Shifen Waterfall, the broadest waterfall in Taiwan. It was busy with picture-takers, but you couldn’t ignore the magnificent cascading, blue water… the crowds were justified. Leading up to the waterfall was a calm stream, with hardly any current at all, so we were baffled how that turns into the rushing water of Shifen Waterfall. There were many waterfall viewing points along the trail, so we witnessed it from all angles before stopping in a gift shop where I bought a lantern postcard (having low expectations of my nighttime, handheld photos) and some tiny, decorative lanterns you can hang up for good fortune. The two I bought were specifically wishing for “Friendship forever, love simply” and “Healthy, safe, and happy all year round.” I feel like I covered all the main bases. Plus, the tiny lanterns were decorated with ornate flowers and I thought they were very pretty. They’re a nice souvenir from the festival.

From there, we headed back the way we came. On the way, we found a stand where you could buy your own lantern and set it off into the sky for 150 NT ($5 USD). A few of us chipped in 50 NT and we shared one, large, red lantern, which was plenty big for all of our wishes… it was huge! We hung it on a clothesline and passed around the sharpie marker. Wishes sprawled across all sides in the form of letters and drawings— good health, happiness, good weather, money, safe travels, business success, all kinds of things. We actually ran out of things to wish for so we just drew a giant dollar sign on the last side and wrote our names in it. Hopefully that makes us all a lot of money in the future.

We gave it to the man running the booth and he ballooned it out, turned it upside down, and lit the center ball on fire. We all watched our hopes and wishes for the new year ascend higher and higher into the sky, our heads looking straight up until the massive lantern we had just decorated became a small speck very far away.

Next we checked out the food stall area, and got some quick eats before staking out a spot for optimal lantern viewing. Grace and I got chicken rice. We decided the hardest place to get a spot later would be right near the release point, so we went there first. There would be releases of approximately 200 lanterns every 20 to 30 minutes, so we planned to watch the first several from different spots. The first spot closest to the main stage was definitely the most crowded. As it got darker, a woman interviewed people on camera from all over the world about where they came from and why they were here today. A couple of “test rounds” were sent off before it actually got dark.

Finally, it was dark enough for the lanterns to glow against the night sky. A giant group of lanterns ascended into the air at once, and people oohed, ah-ed, and snapped photos over their heads. As they flew higher, they became a group of bright lights, then just dots, as they followed the Pingxi wind. Then we watched the next release from a little farther away in a less crowded area, but still on level ground. Then we walked a little bit up a hill for the last release we watched.

We figured we better get in line for the bus home before the festival ended. Although the line was extremely long, it was divided into sitting and standing lines, and the standing line moved forward fairly quickly. We were even able to see the following lanterns releases from the line. Every now and then, people would point at the sky and you’d see the next group of floating lanterns. We were probably in line about 30 minutes before we were able to get on a bus, which was not bad at all considering the crowd. Once we got back to Taipei and onto an MRT, I ran into Julia and Anja, who were also at the festival. We’d see them again tomorrow on our soy sauce farm excursion! I couldn’t believe we ran into them considering the amount of people coming home from the festival and the small number of people I even know in Taipei. With all the herding from public transport to public transport, we were tired, and although it felt very late, we actually made it home by 10 p.m.

Having never even seen a sky lantern, this was a fantastic first experience. I can see why so many people visit. It wasn’t quite so magical as the lantern scene in Disney’s movie Tangled, but it definitely reminded me of it.

And on that perfect Disney ending, I’ll leave you there. The next day we would be going to the soy sauce farm… brace yourselves for more roosters, passionate karaoke, and award-winning bamboo in the next post. Until next time—