Laser beams lit up the sky and blazing lanterns dotted the city as the 2006 Taipei Lantern Festival began at the Chiang Kai-shek Memorial yesterday, with tens of thousands of people gathering last night to celebrate the official mark of the end of the Lunar New Year holiday.
In celebration of the Year of the Dog, the festival's opening event told the story of Kokai, a boy from the Tao Aboriginal tribe of Lanyu, and his dog "Wang Wang" and their journey in search of Wang Wang's missing sister "Fu Fu."
At the end of the narrative, a 22m lantern swirled around at one end of the Chiang Kai-shek Memorial, blazing with colors and featuring depictions of Aboriginal song and dance. Surrounding lanterns featured 12 of the city's attractions, including the Taipei 101 skyscraper, the Miramar shopping mall and Yangmingshan.
PHOTO: CHANG CHUNG-YI, TAIPEI TIMES
Good weather yesterday attracted a large crowd to the memorial long before the event began. A long line had formed at 9am for free hand-held dog lanterns provided by the Taipei City Government.
"The design of this year's lantern is cute, and I think this would make a very nice memento for the Year of the Dog," said one girl surnamed Huang, who waited for an hour to receive her lantern.
There will be a lantern show every 30 minutes nightly between 7pm and 11pm during the festival, which runs until Feb. 19.
Lantern festivals began in other parts of the country yesterday. The 2006 Taiwan Lantern Festival was held in Tainan City, with a lantern narrative entitled "Pan Hu Recreates the Heavens," while President Chen Shui-bian (
"We should give Hsieh credit for contributing to the development of Kaohsiung ... My friendship with Hsieh remains the same whether he is in the government or not," Chen said.
In Taichung, Snoopy was featured as a lantern theme for the city's Lantern Festival, with free hand-held Snoopy lanterns a popular draw.
The chaotic Yenshui Beehive Rockets Festival in Yenshui Township (鹽水), Tainan County, meanwhile, attracted a large crowd dressed to protect themselves against injury by the large number of fireworks that were fired at statues of local deities in palanquins.
SECURITY: Starlink owner Elon Musk has taken pro-Beijing positions, and allowing pro-China companies to control Taiwan’s critical infrastructure is risky, a legislator said Starlink was reluctant to offer services in Taiwan because of the nation’s extremely high penetration rates in 4G and 5G services, the Ministry of Digital Affairs said yesterday. The ministry made the comments at a meeting of the legislature’s Transportation Committee, which reviewed amendments to Article 36 of the Telecommunications Management Act (電信管理法). Article 36 bans foreigners from holding more than 49 percent of shares in public telecommunications networks, while shares foreigners directly and indirectly hold are also capped at 60 percent of the total, unless specified otherwise by law. The amendments, sponsored by Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Ko
The eastern extension of the Taipei MRT Red Line could begin operations as early as late June, the Taipei Department of Rapid Transit Systems said yesterday. Taipei Rapid Transit Corp said it is considering offering one month of free rides on the new section to mark its opening. Construction progress on the 1.4km extension, which is to run from the current terminal Xiangshan Station to a new eastern terminal, Guangci/Fengtian Temple Station, was 90.6 percent complete by the end of last month, the department said in a report to the Taipei City Council's Transportation Committee. While construction began in October 2016 with an
NON-RED SUPPLY: Boosting the nation’s drone industry is becoming increasingly urgent as China’s UAV dominance could become an issue in a crisis, an analyst said Taiwan’s drone exports to Europe grew 41.7-fold from 2024 to last year, with demand from Ukraine’s fight against Russian aggression the most likely driver of growth, a study showed. The Institute for Democracy, Society and Emerging Technology (DSET) in a statement on Wednesday said it found that many of Taiwan’s uncrewed aerial vehicle (UAV) sales were from Poland and the Czech Republic. These countries likely transferred the drones to Ukraine to aid it in its fight against the Russian invasion that started in 2022, it said. Despite the gains, Taiwan is not the dominant drone exporter to these markets, ranking second and fourth
The New Taipei City Art Museum this weekend plans to celebrate its first anniversary with a two-day extravaganza featuring live concerts and a large-scale synchronized fireworks and drone display, the New Taipei City Cultural Affairs Department said. The two-day celebrations are to take place in the museum’s outdoor park, with markets and live performances by singers including Ann Bai (白安), Bii (畢書盡) and the Cosmos People (宇宙人), the department said. The highlight on both evenings would be the "Echoes of Light" show, an aerial spectacle combining fireworks and drone performances designed around the concept of "dual stages in the sky," it
RSS