Lantern Festival

The Lantern Festival is Celebrated on the 15th day of the Lunar New Year.  In Taichung there are 3 locations for the lantern festival, each featuring their own lanterns and activities.  They stagger the opening of the locations over several days so that people can visit all of the locations.   We had planned to go to the main location last night, we didn't realize that was the opening day for that site.  When i was at a playdate yesterday one of the mom's suggested that it would be the perfect night to visit the smallest site because everyone would be at the main attraction, and that is exactly what we did.  I am SO glad we did.  Eric dropped us off just before dark, I wanted to try and get there in time to get one of the lanterns they give out.  When we arrived I immediately saw the line for the free lantern and it became clear that we would have needed to get there much earlier to get a ticket to get in line.  The number I saw on a ticket of someone near the end of the line was 545 so we bypassed that plan and started enjoying the lanterns.  It was a beautiful evening and the lanterns were amazing. Zane enjoyed looking at the lanterns and of course watching the people.

While we were walking around a very nice family walked past us and handed me one of the lantern kits that I had been anxious to get in line for....each person could get a ticket and they had a large family so they had gotten more than enough lanterns for their children.  It was very a very nice gesture.  Sometimes it pays off to hang out with the Tiny American.  Everyone in their family seemed very happy to be giving us this gift except one of their little girl's who was probably 5....she did not look impressed with Z or with her dad for sharing one of their lanterns.  I was very happy that they were so kind AND that I hadn't had to stand in the very long line! They only give away 80,000 total for the whole festival.  I think they are anticipating like 8 million visitors over the course of the whole festival.

This is the lantern kit put together.  It is the year of the goat.  It has a little LED light that  illuminates him.  I feel lucky to be one of the 80,000 people to get one.  

We will attend the larger site probably sometime this weekend.  The festivals and culture are an exciting part of our adventure here in Taiwan.  They break up the everyday and we want to experience as much of it as we can while we are here and are excited to be able to share it with you.