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.
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