One of the main reasons we decided to go to Taiwan when we did was so we could take part in the lantern festival. On a specific day of the Chinese New Year thousands of people from all over Taiwan and the world go to Pingxi for the opportunity to release their own sky lanterns. The lanterns are made of waxy paper, you write your wishes on the outside then light a coil in the middle and release them into the sky. They float up into the sky and look gorgeous, especially at night. They’re supposed to take your wishes to the heave s and make them come true.
Originally we were worried about being able to get to Pingxi as it’s a small town outside of Taipei, but Taiwan lived up to what we’d come to expect and had meticulously planned the event. This included shuttle buses, the only downside of which, was that I had to give up my passion fruit smoothies, which you’d underhand as a tragedy if you’ve ever had an emotional connection to a beverage. At the festival we all bough our own lanterns and wrote wishes on them and the names of our friends and family. For the rest of the day we indulged in street food: chicken stuffed with rice, awesome tofu on a stick, colourful cotton candy, ice cream wraps. When it was about to get dark we went to go watch the main event, thousands of floating lanterns being released at the same time. It was AMAZING, the sky was full of them and it looks like the most amazing star lit night you could ever imagine.
One thing to note is how dangerous the whole event is… yes the lanterns look beautiful floating in the sky but they also come crashing back to land eventually, sometimes still ablaze and into trees… Or people. I love lax safety regulations!
After the big release we all wanted to light our own lanterns go. One by one my friends lanterns flew beautifully into the night and then finally it was my turn… And my entire lantern caught on fire and burnt to ash. I really hope it wasn’t a sign of things to come, if that’s not negative foreshadowing I don’t know what is! I did get to make a new lantern to release but I think I’ll still be extra cautious… Just in case!