Pingxi Sky Lantern Festival - New Taipei and Taitung raise hot-air lantern
The “2015 New Taipei City Pingxi Sky Lantern Festival” began its second event, “Cross-boundary Spectacle; move forward in Unity,” today (2/27) at Pingxi MIddle School. New Taipei Mayor, Chu Liluan, and Taitung County Executive, Huang Jianting, released a 16.5 feet tall hot-air Lantern together.
New Taipei City Mayor Chu welcomed visitors coming from all over the world to take part in the Sky Lantern Festival. This year is the Year of the Sheep, and the mayor wished everyone kindness, peace, joy, and hope.
Taitung County County Executive said that New Taipei City’s Sky Lantern Festival and Taitung’s hot-air balloons festival are two of the most popular events in the country right now. The executive welcomed everyone to come to Taitung to experience the annual hot-air balloon festival. Lastly, the executive wished everyone’s spirit will be raised up like the event’s sky lanterns.
The attending guests wrote their hopes and blessings on the hot-air lanterns . Mayor Chu wrote “Bright future for the rising New Taipei,” Executive Huang wrote “Happiness, take flight,” and the Director of the American Institute in Taiwan, Christopher J. Marut, wrote in Chinese, “World peace and fortunes in the Year of the Sheep.”
The “New Taipei City Pingxi Sky Lantern Festival” is entering its 17th year and has become an internationally well-known celebration in that duration. During the event, a Mr. Lin of Taichung (age 33), who drove up to the festival at 3am, wrote “Marry Me” on one of the lanterns as a proposal to his female companion; his companion accepted the proposal. The night’s “Hot-air Lantern” is the first collaboration between New Taipei City and Taitung. The event combined the lantern (symbolizing hope) with the hot-air balloon (symbolizing dreams) by releasing a unique 16.5 feet tall hot-air balloon lantern. The pictorial on the balloon, which includes tourist highlights from both New Taipei and Taitung, was created by students of Taitung County’s Luye Middle School in the Luye Township and students of New Taipei City’s Pingxi Middle School in the Pingxi District.
Aside from releasing the 16.5 feet hot-air lantern, the organizers arranged for 8 periods of lantern release for the general public, totaling 1600 lanterns. There were a variety of performances on stage, including Pingxi Middle School’s drumline, aboriginal performance teams from Taitung, and artists such as John Suming, Taibalangtianyi, Generation 7, KyRa RAY, and others. The event brought visual and audio entertainment to the attendees.
The third part of the festival, “Unity in Shifen, Blessings fill the sky,” will take place on March 5th at Shifen Square. The event will feature large, 20-inch paper lanterns and 200, smaller, 4-inch paper blessing lanterns as part of the celebration of the Lantern Festival. New Taipei City Government is asking the citizen to take trains or buses to attend the event. Cars and motorcycle traffic control will be in effect on the day from 9am to midnight 12am. For more information about the event, please visit the “New Taipei City Tourism and Travel Website - 2015 New Taipei City Pingxi Sky Lantern Festival Official Page” and the “New Taipei Tourism Facebook Page.”
New Taipei City Tourism and Travel Website - 2015 New Taipei City Pingxi Sky Lantern Festival Official Page:
http://tour.ntpc.gov.tw
New Taipei Tourism Facebook Page:
http://www.facebook.com/ntctour
For more information:
Chen Jingfang, Tel: 1999 or (02)2960-3456 ext. 4090, Mobile: 0972-180900
Ao Sihui, Tel: 1999 or (02)2960-3456 ext. 4027, Mobile: 0916-760972
Wu Ruoxuan, Tel: 1999 or (02)2960-3456 ext. 4091, Mobile: 0922-168571