A theme lantern featuring a Taiwanese boar will be lit up in Chiayi County's Taipao City (
Mounted upon a steel plate, the theme lantern is meant to symbolize a boar standing on Jhuluo Mountain (
The lantern also reflects the hope for a prosperous year and highlights the virtues of courtesy, sincerity and natural spirit, according to the Tourism Bureau of the Ministry of Transportation and Communications.
PHOTO: TSAI TSUNG-HSUN, TAIPEI TIMES
Meanwhile, water dances and a firework display illuminated the sky above Kaohsiung City's Love River last night as it unveiled this year's Kaohsiung Lantern Festival.
Featuring the title "Eternal Light," Kaohsiung's festivities this year are aimed at highlighting the city's urban characteristics -- the harbor, the Love River and the mountains, said Kaohsiung's Deputy Mayor Cheng Wen-lung (
Unlike lantern festivals in other parts of the nation, the city's main lantern is not in the form of a pig, it features a Makatao chief -- an Aboriginal tribe that live mostly in Kaohsiung and Pingtung counties -- in the center of the lantern.
The twelve animals symbolizing the Twelve Branches used to designate lunar years surround the Makatao chief, forming a sundial lantern that represents the 12 events in the upcoming 2009 Kaohsiung World Games.
The nine-day festival will also feature performances by groups from six of Kaohsiung's sister cities, including Portland, Macon, San Antonio and Colorado Springs in the US, Hachioji in Japan and Busan in South Korea, City officials said.
Like the festivities in Chiayi, the events in Kaohsiung will continue until March 11.
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