The Taipei Lantern Festival’s “Happy Lantern Sea” will light up early on January 25 next year

Written/Compiled and Reported by Chen Guanxin, MOOK Travel Life Network

 

The 2014 Taipei Lantern Festival will be held from February 7 to February 16 at the “Flora and Yuanshan Parks” of the Taipei Flower Expo. The “Happy Taipei Lantern Sea” along Zhongshan North Road will be lit up earlier, on January 25, 2014, shining in downtown Taipei during the Lunar New Year holiday. Themed around the zodiac animal of the year, the “horse,” the 2014 Taipei Lantern Festival features 11 lantern zones: the Prayer Lantern Zone, the Classical Melody Lantern Zone, the Scenic Lantern Zone, the Time Corridor Lantern Zone, the Happy Taipei Lantern Sea, the Dreamland Lantern Zone, the Eight Steeds’ Journey Lantern Zone, the Nostalgic Toys Lantern Zone, the Landscape Lantern Zone, the Student Lantern Zone, and the International/Corporate Lantern Zone.

In 2013, the Taipei Lantern Festival debuted the beautifully romantic and deeply urban-themed “Happy Lantern Sea” along the ground-level road of Zhongshan North Road and parks along the MRT line, receiving widespread praise. The internationally renowned Regent Taipei Hotel also adorned its plaza and roadside trees during this period, complementing the lantern sea and delighting visitors with beautiful surprises. This year, the “Happy Taipei Lantern Sea” will be lit up earlier on January 25, 2014, creating a vibrant and colorful Zhongshan North Road.

 

Huang Lü-jin-ju, Director of Taipei City Government Civil Affairs Bureau, stated that the 2014 Taipei Lantern Festival aims to present a colorful and fairy-tale-like style. Using the horse—an animal often depicted in Chinese and foreign stories as soaring through the skies and carrying dreams—the festival hopes to bring a unique New Year experience. For instance, the “Eight Steeds’ Journey Lantern Zone” draws inspiration from the significant artwork in Chinese painting history, “Eight Steeds,” using traditional lantern installations to depict eight colorful steeds galloping through clouds, traveling thousands of miles at night, and soaring with wings, bringing the horses from the “Eight Steeds” painting into the park setting and mingling with visitors; the “Dreamland Lantern Zone” uses “children’s playgrounds” and “cartoon characters” as design elements to create a magnificent and colorful dream world.

 

The 2014 Taipei Lantern Festival will also emphasize the educational and entertaining significance unique to traditional lantern festivals, launching zones themed around history, classics, and traditional life: for example, the “Classical Melody Lantern Zone” will focus on the touching filial piety story “The 24 Paragons of Filial Piety,” presenting traditional tales in a fresh new light; the “Scenic Lantern Zone” draws inspiration from historical anecdotes to create grand and majestic historical scenes; the “Time Corridor Lantern Zone” is inspired by the early Taiwanese commoners’ lifestyle, recreating cultural elements such as weddings, first-birthday celebrations, plowing fields, and harvests; the “Nostalgic Toys Lantern Zone” will transport visitors back in time with playful and nostalgic lantern decorations; the “Prayer Lantern Zone” allows visitors to pray for good fortune for the coming year when visiting the lantern festival at the start of the New Year.

 

Additionally, the “Happy Taipei Lantern Sea” and the “Landscape Lantern Zone” will adorn trees and lawns, combining numerous small lights, specialty lanterns, and other light sources to create a dazzling and colorful lantern festival atmosphere along the 1st to 3rd sections of Zhongshan North Road (from Civic Boulevard to Zhongshan Bridge), including the medians, sidewalk trees, and both Yuanshan and Flora Parks.

 

 

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