The New Taipei City Library and 19 local temples are giving out stamps to readers who borrow books over the Lunar New Year holiday with the possibility of lighting a free good-fortune lamp (guangmingdeng, 光明燈), a Taoist tradition said to bring a safe and smooth year.
City residents are encouraged to borrow 10 books from library branches near the participating temples, where they can obtain a stamp for the chance to be one of 630 people selected to light a lucky lamp, library director Wang Chin-hua (王錦華) said on Tuesday.
“The event will not only promote reading, but also gain the favor and good fortune of the gods,” the library said.
Photo courtesy of the New Taipei City Sports Office
Meanwhile, the New Taipei City Sports Center is to give out packets of red envelopes from today, New Taipei City Sports Office Director Hung Yu-ling (洪玉玲) said.
The packets contain four large envelopes and a small envelope, each carrying one of four Chinese characters: Fu (富) for “wealth,” Fu (福) for “good fortune,” Fu (腹) for “belly” and Fu (賦) for “gift,” Hung said.
The characters convey having great wealth and being stately, having luck, having intelligence and being rid of excess belly fat, Hung said.
The packets also contain stickers that are more modern and fashionable, Hung said, adding that the New Taipei City Government has only prepared 1,000 packets.
The fitness center at each municipal sports center is also to offer visitors a discount price of NT$20, down from NT$50, from the second to the fifth day of the Lunar New Year, or from Jan. 26 to 29.
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫), spokeswoman Yang Chih-yu (楊智伃) and Legislator Hsieh Lung-chieh (謝龍介) would be summoned by police for questioning for leading an illegal assembly on Thursday evening last week, Minister of the Interior Liu Shyh-fang (劉世芳) said today. The three KMT officials led an assembly outside the Taipei City Prosecutors’ Office, a restricted area where public assembly is not allowed, protesting the questioning of several KMT staff and searches of KMT headquarters and offices in a recall petition forgery case. Chu, Yang and Hsieh are all suspected of contravening the Assembly and Parade Act (集會遊行法) by holding
PRAISE: Japanese visitor Takashi Kubota said the Taiwanese temple architecture images showcased in the AI Art Gallery were the most impressive displays he saw Taiwan does not have an official pavilion at the World Expo in Osaka, Japan, because of its diplomatic predicament, but the government-backed Tech World pavilion is drawing interest with its unique recreations of works by Taiwanese artists. The pavilion features an artificial intelligence (AI)-based art gallery showcasing works of famous Taiwanese artists from the Japanese colonial period using innovative technologies. Among its main simulated displays are Eastern gouache paintings by Chen Chin (陳進), Lin Yu-shan (林玉山) and Kuo Hsueh-hu (郭雪湖), who were the three young Taiwanese painters selected for the East Asian Painting exhibition in 1927. Gouache is a water-based
Taiwan would welcome the return of Honduras as a diplomatic ally if its next president decides to make such a move, Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) said yesterday. “Of course, we would welcome Honduras if they want to restore diplomatic ties with Taiwan after their elections,” Lin said at a meeting of the legislature’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee, when asked to comment on statements made by two of the three Honduran presidential candidates during the presidential campaign in the Central American country. Taiwan is paying close attention to the region as a whole in the wake of a
A magnitude 4.1 earthquake struck eastern Taiwan's Hualien County at 2:23pm today, according to the Central Weather Administration (CWA). The epicenter of the temblor was 5.4 kilometers northeast of Hualien County Hall, at a depth of 34.9 km, according to the CWA. The earthquake's intensity, which gauges the actual effect of a temblor, was the highest in Hualien County, where it measured 2 on Taiwan's 7-tier intensity scale. The quake also measured an intensity of 1 in Yilan county, Taichung, Nantou County, Changhua County and Yunlin County, the CWA said. There were no immediate reports of damage or injuries.
RSS