Taiwan Lantern Festival

Who would have guessed?

Taiwan actually has two completely different

lantern festivals.

There's the Sky Lantern Festival,

which is in Ping Xi,

where we went a few weekends months ago.
(My blogging has been a bit delayed... again.)

And then there's the Annual Lantern Festival,

which is hosted by a different city every year.

In a certain park in Taichung,

there is a giant goat lantern left over

from when it was their turn to host the Lantern Festival.

This year the Lantern Festival was hosted in Lugang,

a quaint "little" town

that is known by us Berhan Teachers

for it's handmade fans and lanterns.

There are all sorts of cool things to be found there,

but we didn't go for shopping this time.

Quite honestly,

I had no idea what to expect,

except many, many people.

Which there were.

But there were also many

interesting...

and very cool

lanterns.

She actually isn't a lantern...
She's a real Asian person pretending to be the Statue of Liberty.

He's not a lantern either,
but I'm not sure what he's pretending to be.
A pilot maybe?

So apparently there is a contest for different categories of lanterns.

There are religious lanterns, dragon lanterns...

ok so those might be the only two signs I happened to see,

but I'm sure there are more than that!

Let me just tell you

that there were

TONS of people

Many, many lanterns

and not enough time

to see them all.

And besides all of those things,

it just happened to be freezing

when we went,

which none of us planned on

and therefore did not prepare for.
It was still fantastic, though.
I mean, how often do you get to see this kind of thing? -->


Anyway.

For those of you who don't know any better,

This year is the Year of the Dragon.

So, Lugang made a giant lantern shaped as a Dragon.

I believe it was called something like
Sky Dragon Soaring Through Open Skies.
Or something equally ridiculous and cheesy and amazing.

We traveled around the world...

Across the seven seas...

Back in time...

It's amazing where lanterns will take you if you'll only let them!

What would a lantern festival be

without a random set of drummers playing on the street?

Well, I can't really say because our experience included that...

It also included a large, furry monkey

giving out free hugs.

Dinner was pizza!

At this fantastic little hole in the wall.

They claim to have the best pizza in Lugang.

I will back this claim.

 

Possibly the coolest lanterns in the place,

because really what is cooler

than a never-ending dragon lantern

suspended above the street?

A pretty spectacular display, if you ask me.

Hooray for lanterns!