With an illuminated 20m-tall mascot pig lighting up the Chiang Kai-Shek Memorial Hall and rows of lanterns shining over the streets, this year's Taipei International Lantern Festival -- a celebration of the holiday that marks the end of Lunar New Year period -- begins this evening.
The festival runs through March 11 at the memorial and this year's theme is the Year of the Pig, which is considered a symbol of fortune, prosperity and luck because of the roundness of the pig's belly.
To reflect that theme, this year's mascot is an adventurous, time-traveling "Zhucolate" pig -- a pun containing the Chinese word for pig -- who educates people on the history and meaning of the Taipei International Lantern Festival and encourages them to discover the beauty of Taipei.
PHOTO: LIAO CHEN-HUEI, TAIPEI TIMES
The city's Department of Civil Affairs handed out 20,000 free mini "Zhucolate" pig lanterns to mark the festival and will hand out another 40,000 to the public during the celebrations. Twenty thousand will be distributed today and another 20,000 tomorrow at 2pm at the memorial hall.
In addition to the lantern display at the main square of the memorial, 16 lanterns depicting qualities associated with the Year of the Pig and representing aspects of traditional culture will be on display on Xinyi Road and Aiguo East Road, the department's deputy commissioner, Jason Yeh (
To promote the Lunar New Year to foreigners visiting or living in Taiwan, the festival also features an international lantern area near the National Concert Hall, with lanterns sponsored by international companies to represent different countries and cultures.
A riddle contest, a traditional part of the Lantern Festival, will be held every night during the celebrations, the department said.
The department also created an online survey asking peope to vote for the Taipei shops that make the best yuanxiao, which are stuffed sticky rice balls eaten during the Lantern Festival.
Tai Yi Milk King (
Chiu Ru (
The city's Department of Transportation encouraged festival-goers to take advantage of its special "festival bus" during the celebrations, as heavy traffic was expected around the festival area.
Passengers can catch the buses at the Taipei Main Station, National Taiwan University Station and Taipei City Hall Station, the department said.
Details on the festival are available on the Internet at www.taipei-festival2007.com.
The Ministry of Education (MOE) is to launch a new program to encourage international students to stay in Taiwan and explore job opportunities here after graduation, Deputy Minister of Education Yeh Ping-cheng (葉丙成) said on Friday. The government would provide full scholarships for international students to further their studies for two years in Taiwan, so those who want to pursue a master’s degree can consider applying for the program, he said. The fields included are science, technology, engineering, mathematics, semiconductors and finance, Yeh added. The program, called “Intense 2+2,” would also assist international students who completed the two years of further studies in
Former president Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) departed for Europe on Friday night, with planned stops in Lithuania and Denmark. Tsai arrived at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport on Friday night, but did not speak to reporters before departing. Tsai wrote on social media later that the purpose of the trip was to reaffirm the commitment of Taiwanese to working with democratic allies to promote regional security and stability, upholding freedom and democracy, and defending their homeland. She also expressed hope that through joint efforts, Taiwan and Europe would continue to be partners building up economic resilience on the global stage. The former president was to first
Former president Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) on Monday called for greater cooperation between Taiwan, Lithuania and the EU to counter threats to information security, including attacks on undersea cables and other critical infrastructure. In a speech at Vilnius University in the Lithuanian capital, Tsai highlighted recent incidents in which vital undersea cables — essential for cross-border data transmission — were severed in the Taiwan Strait and the Baltic Sea over the past year. Taiwanese authorities suspect Chinese sabotage in the incidents near Taiwan’s waters, while EU leaders have said Russia is the likely culprit behind similar breaches in the Baltic. “Taiwan and our European
The Taipei District Court sentenced babysitters Liu Tsai-hsuan (劉彩萱) and Liu Jou-lin (劉若琳) to life and 18 years in prison respectively today for causing the death of a one-year-old boy in December 2023. The Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office said that Liu Tsai-hsuan was entrusted with the care of a one-year-old boy, nicknamed Kai Kai (剴剴), in August 2023 by the Child Welfare League Foundation. From Sept. 1 to Dec. 23 that year, she and her sister Liu Jou-lin allegedly committed acts of abuse against the boy, who was rushed to the hospital with severe injuries on Dec. 24, 2023, but did not
RSS