LOS ANGELES, CA. – While the world prepares for the Cupid to shoot his passionate arrows of love in celebration of Valentine’s Day, Taiwan plans to blend that fiery love into the powerful luck of the Dragon Lunar New Year also celebrated in February with many spectacular festivals including the Sky Lantern Festival in Pingxi, Beehive Rockets Festival in Yanshui and Lantern Festival in Lugang. The powerful combination of love and luck at these festivals promises to provide singles, couples and lovers the perfect romantic stage to enjoy the beautiful tropical island of Taiwan.
Watching gentle lanterns slowly emerge from the earth at the Sky Lantern Festival in Pingxi from now through Feb. 6th is an image that will never be forgotten as experienced by Ashley of ABC’s Bachelorette during an episode on Taiwan. Like Ashley, visitors write their special wishes carried by the lanterns – made of oiled rice paper and light bamboo frames – to the gods in heaven.
According to history, the loud noise of firework symbolize sending out the old and bringing in the new, and at the annual Beehive Rockets Festival in Yanshui on February 5th and 6th (every year on the 14th and 15th day of the first lunar month) visitors will experience the pleasure of hearing the loudest firework celebration to scare off evil spirits and invite good spirits into their lives for the whole year. Sparkling and colorful fireworks are expected to cover at least five major Tainan districts throughout the night.
Themed “Soaring Dragon in the Radiant Sky,” Taiwan Tourism Bureau (TTB) plans to host the spectacular annual Taiwan Lantern Festival in Lugang of Chunghua County from February 6th through 19th. TTB, the presenter of this grand event for the past 23 years, expects to fill the entire Lugang Streets with vibrant colors to compliment and showcase thousands of lanterns made from delicate transparent paper or thin silk, which represent prosperity, peace and happiness.
This year’s special 66-foot-high, 20-ton-weight dragon lantern is designed with new materials incorporating holographic pixel grating lighting technology developed by Industrial Technology Research Institute, and state-of-the-art sound effects using digital controllers. All electrical lanterns are illuminated with energy-efficient LED lighting. During the day, visitors can see the impressive art landscapes throughout the town. Then at night the lanterns will transform the evening sky of the historical town into a magical lantern land with a special dragon flying high in the sky displaying dazzling shadows and lights never before seen anywhere in the world except in Taiwan.
“Gong Shi Fa Chai! Our Lunar New Year celebration begins in mid-January,” said Trust Lin, Director of Taiwan Tourism Bureau Los Angeles. “And while our island prepares for 2 full months of romantic and prosperous celebrations, we continue to welcome new culture seekers and global adventurists to explore Taiwan.”
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