• Date: Fifteenth day of the first lunar month

The Lantern Festival marks the end of the Lunar New Year period and is one of the most visually spectacular events in Taiwan. Two celebrations are particularly renowned.

The Pingxi Sky Lantern Festival, held in a mountain town east of Taipei in New Taipei City, sees thousands of paper lanterns inscribed with wishes and prayers and released into the night sky simultaneously. The sight of the lanterns ascending above the valley is genuinely extraordinary. Be aware that the event is extremely popular and crowded; the township has implemented ticketed zones and attendee limits in recent years to manage the pressure.

The Yanshui Beehive Fireworks Festival in Tainan County is an entirely different proposition: a centuries-old ritual in which enormous “beehive” racks of bottle rockets are set off in proximity to crowds of revellers. Participants wear full protective clothing including motorbike helmets. The event has its origins in a nineteenth-century ceremony to drive away a plague. It is loud, chaotic, and genuinely thrilling. This is a festival for the adventurous rather than the faint-hearted.