If you've ever seen the movie Tangled, you know what a sky lantern is.
Well, I can tell you from experience that the magic of sky lanterns isn't just something out of a fairy tale. Every year, the village of Pingxi marks the Chinese New Year with a several week long Sky Lantern (天燈) Festival and fills the sky with so many beautiful lanterns it would make Mandy Moore jealous.
This year's Chinese New Year festivities started on the Lunar New Year, January 23. It is estimated that every year between 100,000 and 200,000 lanterns are released in the cute little hamlet of Pingxi over the course of the festival. However, the biggest day of festivities falls on the last day of the Chinese New Year, which this year was February 6th. On the final day of the festival, the town organizes a big concert and a mass release of 1,000 lanterns at once (it's amazing, see above video).
I wonder what the measure word is for a group of lanterns? Herd, plethora, murder?
Apparently the tradition of lantern launching in the area first began after the Han settled there. There was so much crime in the area that the settlers began using lanterns as a way of signaling to each other that they were safe. This tradition eventually evolved into a full scale yearly festival after the town;s coal mines shut down in the late 20th century and the villagers needed a new source of income. And, when you go, you definitely get the feeling that this event is the town's bread and butter. Everyone and their brother (literally) sets up booths all along the sides of the road selling everything from stinky tofu and grilled squid on a stick to Turkish chicken wraps and patterned bath robes. And, of course, there are lanterns of every size and style for sale everywhere.
Every kind of dumpling imaginable!
This guy was selling brown sugar lollipops, spicy snails, and corn on a stick all at one very enterprising stand
Toy lanterns and night light lanterns for sale next to a stack of ready to launch DIY lanterns
In some ways, today's lanterns still retain some of their original meaning. The only difference is that now, instead of being a symbol of safety, they are used as more of a prayer for safety in the new year. Nowadays, it's become popular for people paint their wishes for the new year, which usually includes something about health and safety, on a lantern and then light them up and let the lanterns carry their wishes to heaven. The streets and train tracks were swarming with people painting their wishes and releasing them. Some of the lanterns were cute, some were funny, one or two were quite pretty and, in accordance with the Chinese zodiac, dragons abounded.
This lantern reads: "Mega Millions + Super Lotto + (something I can't make out in Chinese) = Billionaire!"
This little guy falls firmly into the cute category
One of the more impressively painted dragons (yeah, I was a little jealous of their lantern painting skills)
Cherrica, Christine, and I painted our own lantern with my host parents, Jane and Jason.
Jane's side, she wished for health, luck, and peace in the new year.
Cherrica and I signing our side, complete with dino-dragon holding explosives. It says "Happy year of the dragon!"
Christine drew a crowd that watched eagerly to find out if a foreigner can really write in Chinese (spoiler: she can)
Jason's side
Getting ready to launch our wishes!
There it goes!
Although the whole day was absolutely amazing, nothing can compare to the grand finale mass lantern release and concert. While we didn't get there in time to release a lantern in the first wave (there were already over 2,000 die hards lined up for the noon sign up when we arrived at 11), we were lucky enough to get a place in the third wave of lanterns (and, by default, a better of the first wave when they went off!). It was a great experience and I'm so happy I got to participate in the festivities.
Please note that, while the following pictures and the video at the beginning of this blog are pretty, they just can't do the real thing justice. My advice: If you're ever in Taiwan in early February, you just have to go see the lantern festival for yourself. It's breathtaking!
Setting off the first wave of lanterns
This is what 1,000 lanterns looks like!
Getting ready to set off our (rapidly decorated) lantern
I feel like some sort of "Goodnight Moon" reference would be appropriate here?
Thanks to my twisted ankle, hiking and other forms of walking-intensive travel were off the plate for a few weeks. But don't worry, I've still been keeping busy. For starters, Christine and I figured out how to bake muffins in a toaster oven (a general lack of conventional ovens in Asia is just one of those "cultural differences" I'm learning to get over).
Experiment #1: Pumpkin cream cheese muffins
If you can't tell, we voted them a success
Then, Christine, Cherrica and I got to go on a scooter-tour of Luodong with my host dad, Jason. As you may have inferred from my blog post title, baby animals and food figured heavily in said tour (my host family has already figured out my two favorite things).
After a wonderful lunch of homemade pork and green onion dumplings, we started off our tour at a goat farm/baby animal petting zoo/cafe/kid's carnival. I realize that that's a really bizarre description but I don't know how else to explain it. Anyhow, we skipped the carnival rides and headed straight for the animals.
Jason says, "bahh!"
The piglets were my favorite. I was sorely tempted to take one home with me (side note: this farm lets you rent piglets by the night, so taking one home with me was a legitimate option).
The farm also lets you buy milk by the bottle to feed to the piglets and the baby goats.
Awww! So darn cute!
The farm also had some friendly free-range chickens and turkeys wandering about the cafe and the neighboring playground.
Feeding the goats was also an option.
Of course, not all of the goats were strictly interested in eating grass.
And, just in case you still haven't reached your cute quote for the day, here's a baby bunny:
Happy year of the rabbit!
When Cherrica and Jason finally managed to drag Christine and I away from the animals, we headed to the night market for lunch (despite the somewhat deceptive name, many parts of Taiwan's famous night markets are open during the day as well). After a quick ride around town during which Jason pointed out all of the good places to eat, visit, or park a scooter, we stopped to pick up some 蔥油餅 (green onion pancakes) from the most popular stand in Luodong. For desert, I tried 豆花 (a desert made of shaved ice, tapioca pearls, and sweet tofu pudding) for the first time.
Lunch! Christine (right) got traditional 豆花 with peanuts while Cherrica (left) went for tried grass jelly (I promise, it tastes a lot better than the name makes it sound).
Next, we headed out of the city and into a beautiful patch of countryside to visit Happiness 20, a farm/restaurant/park with its own orchard and an emphasis on DIY crafts. Again, weird description but "farms" I've been to in Taiwan are just so different than most farms back home. I think maybe a tourist-friendly organic farm run by hippies in Vermont is about the closest you would come in the US.
Two of Jason's friends opened the farm a few years ago, so parts of it are still being built and expanded. One of the most fun things about the farm was their DIY pizza station, complete with a brick pizza oven (which Jason's friend constructed after watching an instructive YouTube video). We built a fruit, honey, and marshmallow dessert pizza and the owner's kids joined us to make a more traditional ham, tomato sauce, and green pepper pizza.
We used honey for sauce. Other toppings included, pineapple, bananas, marshmallows,
tomatoes (they're a fruit in Taiwan), and cheese. I feel like this should also be filed under
"sounds weird, tastes wonderful."
After they put our pizza in the oven, we got to feed the goats while we waited for the food to cook. No offense to Dixie Crossroads, which will always be a special part of my childhood, but this was way more fun than feeding the fish while you wait for your dinner.
When they were ready, both pizzas were delicious.
And we had fun herbal flower tea, complete with edible flowers, to go with it!
What more can a girl ask for?
You may remember my host family from last month's Moon Festival. Well, they're still pretty much the nicest people ever (I really can't say enough good things about this family, I'm so lucky to have them in my life!). Recently, they were nice enough to take me with them on their family vacation to Kenting, the county at the very southern tip of Taiwan. It was a pretty long drive down, but that just gave me more time to bond with my host sister, Candy. It turns out that, despite a slight language barrier, angry birds and origami are universal.
This is Candy. She's adorable. End of story.
A roadside display for the "Hometown of Hawks"
Kenting National Park is a famous pit stop for migrating hawks and other birds heading south to the Philippines for the winter. So, every October, lots of hawk enthusiasts like my host dad, Jason, head down to Kenting as well.
Jason hawk watching with his super-zoom
We did get to see some hawks but I, unfortunately, didn't manage to get any really good pictures of them. Most of my good bird pictures from the trip are not of the raptor variety. But that's okay with me. If you know me, you probably already know that I love birds (and other animals) of just about any variety.
Cranes at Eluanbi lighthouse
Kenting is an absolutely beautiful area. The beaches are gorgeous and there are mountains and forests everywhere. The whole place is like a giant postcard. I also got to check out the National Aquarium and hike down to the most southern point in Taiwan! (Which has made me determined to make my way to the most northerly point on the island as well sometime this year.)
My host family in the giant whale fountain outside of the aquarium
Lunch, aquarium style
Beautiful beaches!
At the Southern most point in Taiwan!
Also, at Jason's insistence, I tried some new and unusual food. Strange food is pretty much becoming a traveling trend for me at this point.
Raw puffer fish skin salad
Flying-fish jerky
Cheese baozi from a really famous restaurant in Kenting! Soooo good.
