Celebrations for the Year of the Goat Lantern Festival starts in earnest today, with nationwide revelry set to create a dazzling backdrop of color and light across the country.
In Taipei, the 2003 Taipei Lantern Festival will officially begin at the Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall, featuring an array of lanterns representing this year's lunar calender animal, the goat.
The festival was denied central government cash this year and is instead being funded by the Taipei City Government and sponsorship from companies including Taiwan Cellular Corp, Taiwan Fixed Network and Amway Taiwan Company.
The Taipei Lantern Festival's showpiece this year, situated at the center of the CKS Memorial Hall plaza, is a massive pair of red goat horns curling skyward, symbolizing Taiwan's vitality and its hopes for the year ahead.
The lantern, standing 20m tall and 18m wide, features a ladder bridge at its base that allows visitors to walk through the lantern and make a wish. Viewed from a distance, the lantern illuminates a projection of the Chinese character for the goat.
Other lanterns vie for the public's attention in the plaza.
At the front gate of the CKS Memorial Hall stand 19 dancing goat lanterns playing on a range of musical instruments.
Other attractions of the Taipei Lantern Festival include the Tunnel of Light alongside Chungshan S. Road, Xinyi Road and Ai-kuo E. Road, featuring light bulbs and lantern strings decorated on tree-lined pedestrian paths.
A display of lanterns from the festival's lantern-making competition winners are also exhibited.
The food and folk art gallery will be set up on the sidewalk of Hanzhou S. Road alongside the memorial hall, featuring traditional and exotic delicacies as well as crafts and famous agricultural produce from around the island.
During the Lantern Festival, the streets around the CKS Memorial Hall will be closed to traffic.
Another highlight of the nation's Lantern Festival celebrations is the Taiwan Lantern Festival, which this year is being held in Taichung City.
Due to the huge popularity of previous Lantern Festivals held by the Taichung City Government and local businesses, the Cabinet's Tourism Bureau decided to award its festival budget to Taichung for the first time.
Situated in Taichung Park, the main lantern -- towering 20m into the air -- features a ram with curled horns standing on top of a large boulder.
Activities attached to the festival include a display of large lanterns, firework displays and water-dance performances on the park's lake.
Visitors can also enjoy other dance performances as well as a variety of live bands, magic shows and lantern-making classes and contests.
Organizer expect to attract about 3 million visitors to the festival this year before the celebrations end on Feb. 23.
Due to the crowds, traffic restrictions will be imposed around Taichung Park.
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