A beagle-inspired handheld lantern for this year’s Lantern Festival was unveiled yesterday, with ears that “flap” when the lantern moves and a belly that casts a paw-shaped shadow to represent the Chinese zodiac Year of the Dog.
The way the ears are attached to the head ensures they flap whenever the lantern is carried, lantern designer Lin Chia-wei (林佳葦) said.
“There are also hollow cuts of paws on the dog’s belly, creating cute paw shadows on the ground,” Lin said.
Photo: Chang Chia-ming, Taipei Times
The lanterns are decorated with iconic images of Chiayi County, where the annual national festival is to be held from March 2 to March 11. These include the Alishan Forest Railway, art works from the Southern Branch of the National Palace Museum and Aboriginal totems.
The lantern is named dali (達力), which means “robust,” and represents a good omen for the new year, Tourism Bureau Director-General Chou Yung-hui (周永暉) said.
About 100,000 lanterns are to be handed out in front of the Chiayi County Government and Chiayi Bus Station from Feb. 16 to March 11, or about 2,000 on weekdays and 5,000 on weekends.
A 21m tall lantern featuring an Aboriginal child and a Taiwanese dog is to be displayed in Taibao City (太保) as part of the festival.
The main lantern is to feature 4D visual effects with a special refraction cover to improve light penetration by 70 percent, the bureau said.
More than 20,000 circuits enable LED lights in the lantern to show images made up of at least 12 million pixels, it added.
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