Every 15th day of the Lunar year, Chinese people celebrates the Mid-Autumn or the Lantern Festival wherein a hundred colorful figures are lighted as a lanterns. But before that, a kicked off was celebrated via SKY LANTERN or the KONGMING lantern festival. In this festival, an airborne paper lanterns having a waxy flammable material inside were lighted and threw up in the air, the flame heats the air inside the lantern, thus lowering its density causing the lantern to rise. The sky lantern is only airborne for as long as the flame inside stays alight, after which the lanterns sinks back to the ground. According to history sky lanterns are used as a signalling device or spy blimp in warfare during WWII. This is also called as a balloon munitions.
Moving on to the present time, this sky lanterns was modified and considered as one of the Chinese festivities. And it is celebrated before the Mid-Autumn or the most commonly known as Lantern Festival (note: Lantern Festival & Sky Lantern are different). In this sky lantern celebration, everyone can joined by making or buying paper lanterns in different colors. If in history, it is used as for warfare, now it is used to send messages & wishes to God and yes also as a signal device or for giving hope to find someone who is lost somewhere, just like in the movie "TANGLED".
In Taiwan, this annual event was scheduled into 4 different days starting from Jan26 followed on Jan 28, Feb 4 & the final highlight on the night of Feb 6 at Shi Fen, PingXi District, New Taipei City.
This is a once-a-year event that you don't wanna missed and luckily last Feb. 6, I, together with my friends are so blessed to witness this wonderful & amazing Chinese/Taiwanese culture. We managed to endulged (endulged talaga ginamit! lol) this once in lifetime event by taking on-leave vacation, unnoticed. Hehehe.
Before we get into the place where the event is kicking off, we traveled almost two hours up north. From our place in Hukou Township we traveled by a local train, one & half hours to Taipei City. Then from Taipei City, we spent one more hour also by train going to Rui Fang, then half an hour more from Rui Fang to Shi Fen Station, where the coal mining area is located, the place where the 1600 lanterns are to be released.
 |
| Tunnel |
 |
| View from the train |
 |
| While inside the train I took a picture of a river |
 |
Ping Xi District River near the Mining area
|
 |
| A hanging bridge which I dont know the name. |
 |
| After taking Off the train |
 |
| Trying to make my best pose pero Waley pa rin. Lol. |
 |
| Me at the railway where some of the lantern raiser buy their lanterns |
 |
| Local Taiwanese posing & preparing their lanterns with written wishes to be released. |
 |
| Early raiser as they watch their lanterns flew |
 |
| The event's stage where some local artist will performed. |
 |
| For the experience record, we bought a lantern for $NT150 then write our wishes , hopes & dreams this year. |
 |
| Preparing for our Lantern's flight. |
 |
| Our lantern as it flew up above. |
 |
| Local Taiwan girl, while waiting her signal to release her lantern. |
 |
| Red Lantern flying |
 |
| More lantern's are flying until dusk. |
 |
| And for the highlight, the 'Sabayang Pagpapalipad' ng mga Lighted lanterns. |
*****************
