Qixi Valentine’s Day: Romantic Blue Tears & Traditional Art Blessing Festival

By MOOK Scenic Spots Family (文／MOOK景点家整理报导)

Taiwan’s most romantic Qixi destination is at the Yilan Cultural and Creative Industries Park (Yilan传艺)! You can even witness the Milky Way-like Blue Tears—dreamy and romantic to the max. To experience a Qixi Valentine’s Day that’s both romantic and steeped in tradition, visiting the Yilan Traditional Arts Center lets you take beautiful photos and also pray for good luck and love.

The “2018 Magic & Illusion Art Festival” kicks off from July 1 to August 31, with extended nighttime operations until 8 PM daily. After 4 PM, you can purchase a Starlight Ticket for just NT$100 to enter. After 6 PM, residents of Yilan County (those with registered household residency in Yilan) can enter for free upon presenting their ID.

From July to August, every night visit to the park allows you to enjoy the “Stealing Peaches Night Show” at the Temple Square. In August, the stunning Blue Tears are added, letting visitors snap unique personal photos at the park while experiencing the cool summer evening breeze.

Abundant night shows and daytime performances—over 600 shows throughout the entire summer vacation
The Magic & Illusion Art Festival offers a rich and exciting program, with daytime shows, night performances, and magic acts totaling over 600 throughout the summer. Among them, the nightly show at 6:45 PM is a specially produced and choreographed performance by the “Imagining Taiwan Troupe” titled“Strange Tales of a Painted Screen – Stealing Peaches”, based on Pu Songling’s “Strange Tales from a Chinese Studio” story “Stealing Peaches.” It depicts how a father-daughter street performance duo climbs to the heavens to steal the Queen Mother of the West’s immortal peaches. Boldly combining traditional Chinese magic, illusion, acrobatics, and music and dance with Taiwanese folk performance troupes, the show uses environmental theater and open-air stage concepts to connect the Wenchang Shrine with the traditional opera stage. It challenges viewers’ visual perception and leads them briefly out of the real world into a dreamlike scene.

Blending folklore with modern technology, the Wishing Stars create the Blue Tears at the park
In Taiwan, Qixi brings to mind the legend of the Cowherd and the Weaver Girl, as well as the Goddess of Seven Stars (七娘妈), who is believed to protect children’s health and help young women gain great skills and good marriages. To create a stunning Qixi night scene at the park, the Universal Foundation for the Arts and Culture purchased 3,000 LED orb lights last year. These orbs contain precision LED lights and have two metal touch points on the exterior. Upon contact with water, they light up, turning from white to blue. They are reusable and very eco-friendly.