Lantern Festival: Take Two!

Before you decide not to read this post, please know that the Lantern Festival (see post below) is my favorite thing that I've done yet in Taiwan. It certainly deserves more than one post. The festival runs for around 3 weeks and we so enjoyed our rainy day letting off lanterns with Ash and Shayn that we were excited to plan a date night with our friends Cody and Nicole to go back to PingXi on the last night when they do group lift offs every half hour. It is so packed with people you have to ride a bus up but other than some mild motion sickness that went pretty smoothly. Nathan and I wanted a chance to do our own lantern so we left the older 3 with a sitter and headed out on a most gorgeous Taiwan evening.

After I stole this picture off of Nicole's blog I realized she's not in it- just picture a pretty, hot mama :)

The crowds were insane. Trying to navigate two strollers through the masses was... trying. But we made our way down through the main street checking out all of the vendors and eating all kinds of different foods. Wait. I better be honest. Cody, Nicole and Nathan eagerly tried every new and different food- I typically nibbled, scrunched up my nose and passed the atrocity back to Nathan. For as much as I am coming to love and appreciate Taiwan and it's people, I have to admit I don't like much of their food. Sorry Taiwan.

Two foods we thankfully did not try this lovely evening: Snails still in the shell, and yes, you pop em in your mouth shell and all. I know, I just threw up in my mouth a little too.
And if snails aren't your thing you can always have Squid on a Stick! You know you want it.

As we made our way through the streets every half hour we would see, just up the hill, the release of hundreds of lanterns all at once. The whole massive crowd in the streets would suddenly quiet as we all turned to watch in awe the beautiful glowing lanterns float up into the sky. Nathan and I came to the realization right away that cameras were going to do a pitiful job of capturing the beauty of the lift off. I apologize for that.
Even in the crowds of people there were always random lanterns being let off on their own. Notice the wish on the one in the pic above, "Find a good woman" -makes me smile.

Some of the lanterns caught fire in flight and would come flaming down towards the crowd. We kept a watchful eye but also listened for the cries of alarm that would come from the crowd when a wayward lantern was spotted.

Also of concern were the lanterns being fueled by little kerosene tins (instead of kerosene soaked papers) that would drop flaming drops of kerosene down as the lantern flew through the air and over the crowd. I saw several people with gauze newly taped over an eye and we heard the ambulance sirens several times so I think there were definitely a few minor (?) injuries.
Eventually we made our way back to the Chinese family where we had made our first lanterns that rainy day. They were so happy to see us which made us feel good. The father held Ander the whole time while Nathan and I worked on our lantern. Cody helped Nathan with a few characters but I was pretty pleased to come across the ones Nathan had written below:

~ I love ej ~

Ander approved of our lantern, even took his fingers out of his mouth for the occasion.
After we finished our lanterns we headed back through the ^street lined with all of the food tents, up to the school grounds where they were letting of the huge groups of lanterns. It's a good thing we went up when we did because it turned out to be the last official let off of the festival and I would've been so sad to miss it.
Moments before we let our lantern off...
Notice the ginormous lantern above and how small the people are standing next to it and it will give you some perspective when you see it in the picture below.

^ Easily my favorite picture of the night.

It was absolutely breathtaking to see all of these huge lanterns all ablaze as they floated effortlessly upward. The pictures simply do not do it justice. I know the Chinese associate this tradition with superstition, luck and all manner of (lower-case-g) gods but for me and from my perspective it was different. For me it was like a visual representation of thousands of prayers lifting off in unison on an errand to heaven. Yes, many prayers may be sent Heavenward but each is individual and each will be seen and heard as such.
Amazing right? PingXi Lantern Festival 2011, join us? :)