Latern Festival Wow!



Grandma's Lantern Shop - Yi-Hung and Claude

 Thursday, February 17th is the official close of the Lunar New Year. The new year celebrations end with the Lantern Festival. There are spectacular festivals around Taiwan that include launching very large paper lanterns powered by burning paper in the bottom of the lantern. The most famous is in Taipei County in Pingxi. Thanks to our friend, Yi-Hung, we were able to travel with her and negotiate the taxi, MRT, buses, trains, and foot power to participate in the Lantern Festival.

As you can see there are all kinds of lantern, but these are small ones...

Pingxi is a long time vacation and honeymoon area. Our friend told us that people in the south of Taiwan would come here to see the widest waterfall in Taiwan. We hiked together done to the waterfall. I know it looks like we are standing in front of a fake background, but we are really out there in the mist of the day. This is a very beautiful spot. It reminded us of my father's favorite vacation spot -- Niagra Falls in the U. S. It has that same curve.

A little history...

This area was a coal mining area that was developed during the Japanese occupation of Taiwan. The mine has been closed for many years, but the railroad, river, and romantic scenery allowed the area to develop into a tourist area. Even the former residences of the Japanese managers are used for a bed and breakfast and restaurant. The train is the original narrow gage rail system that the Japanes introduced to carry coal out of the area.

And then the lanterns...

The Latern Festival ends the Lunar New Year with positive hopes for the coming year. Yi-Hung told us that when she was a little girl, her mother would buy two small lanterns for her and her sister and they would walk together through the streets in their neighborhood to end the new year festivities.

The original sky laterns were made of white tissue paper and people would write their wishes and prayers for the coming year on them before they launched them hoping the gods would hear their prayers. Now the lanterns are made out different colors of tissue paper and have different meanings such as green for health, pink for love, red for good luck, etc. Because friends and family have had some health problems, we chose a green lantern and wrote all our wishes on it.

 Mom and Dad,

Terry Jobin for good health. Continued good health for Amy, Pete, Liam and Sean; Jodi, Jeremy, and Tyler, and all the brothers and sisters, nieces and nephews, and grands. May 2011 be a good year for all.

There it goes...

Happy Lantern Festival!







Lunar New Year Celebrations

The Lunar New Year in Taiwan has been an extraordinary time for us. Thanks to a social work student and the generosity of her extended family, we were able to stay with her family in Nantou county. We spent two days and an evening with her. It was amazing. They are great people. The elders of the family are her grandparents who are 88 and 89 years old. Both are retired teachers from Taipei who loved the Nantou area and purchased property and build a two story house in an intesive truck farming area. We went down on Thursday and came back Friday evening. It was great to be with a family! We ate delicious food and learned the fundamentals of Majhong.

Taipei Night Market

Many traditional foods are for sale in preparation for the Lunar New Year. Also, special fruits and baked goods are an important part of honoring the gods and the ancestors. There are many complicated rituals for the family to perform. Many families will visit many shrines - some as many as five - dedicated to different gods who are responsible for taking care of many things such as the earth, the kitchen, prosperity, etc. Even a Buddhist temple may have an altar to a local god who is important to the community. The Catholic Church also had decorations for the Lunar New Year - fire crackers and calligraphy couplets for a good new year.

Nantou Family Celebrations

Outside Taipei, the weather was warm and sunny. When we arrived in Nantou, we were delighted to feel the warmth of the sun. We visited a friend of our student's father. He served tea and accompanied us to visit a large Buddhist Shrine. This is the second largest sect in Taiwan. The complex has an elementary school and high school as well as a monastery and hotel for people
who would like to stay. After that we had traditional
food for the new year.



Nantou is famous for tea and bamboo and we were forturnate to visit several tea plantations and bamboo factories. In the last few weeks, we have learned more about tea -- especially that most fragrant of teas from Taiwan -- Oolong. We feel like we had no idea what we were drinking. There are definite, subtle differences among all the teas we have sampled and the repeated tasting allows for a leisurely time with friends and family.

Outside the family tea shop





Tea Plantation