Lantern Festival- Tangled For Real!!

          On the fifteenth day of Chinese New Year, marking the end of the festivities, is the Lantern Festival.  This has been my favorite holiday experience yet in Taiwan. Rice dumplings, a sweet glutinous rice ball brewed in a soup, are eaten this day. Candles are lit outside houses as a way to guide wayward spirits home. 

            To celebrate the lantern festival we got to do two fun activities: see the light displays around Taipei, and go to Pingxi to light floating lanterns.

            I will start with the most exciting: Floating Lanterns.  Pingxi is a little mining town about an hour and a half outside of Taipei (without lots of traffic).  Going to Pingxi to light the lanterns is extremely popular and it can be a crazy experience.  We were warned that doing this excursion alone can be quite a horrendous experience to travel back and forth so we decided to do it with the AIT group that organized a chartered bus and would head down early afternoon and come back late that night.  We weren't really sure what to expect so we asked some friends to watch Elli for the day knowing that the long traveling time might be more than she could handle. 

Our day trip started off in the town right next to Pingxi, where people wrote their wishes for the new year on bamboo sticks and hung them everywhere.  This town wasn't anything special but we had to get near Pingxi early because of all the traffic, and it was a way to pass the time.

The scenery was picturesque in most ways, but the town was a little underwhelming.

So many Asians were taking pictures on the railroad tracks.  And not just one or two pictures.  TONS OF PICTURES. Pictures next to the fence, next to the polls, walking on the tracks, sitting on the tracks, next to the old beat up train, more walking on the tracks.... I kept thinking, "Am I missing something?" Those Asians and their cameras ... out of control!

We walked along a small trail up the hill behind the train tracks and saw some clay mining models along the cliff.  Cooler looking in the pic than it was in person to be honest. And since it doesn't look that cool even in the picture...

                                    
All along the trail we saw remnants of the sky lanterns that everyone sets off.  Sadly, these little towns here don't have any cleaning crew set up to clear away all the lantern debri after it lands, and as we know what goes up must come down.  The sky lantern lighting tourists are the main source of income for these towns so there is no way they are stopping it though.

Look at all the dots of colors in the surrounding hillside: all sky lanterns.  And we are still about 20 minutes outside of Pingxi.  It got worse as we got closer.

Some of the ruins for this mining town were actually pretty cool with the way that nature just took back what wasn't being used anymore.  My favorite is the tree to the right whose roots just latched on to the side of the wall.  This actually looked even cooler in person.

Now the fun begins.  Here we are writing our wishes for the new year on our own lanterns.  Todd and I each got one.  Sienna shared with me.  I think I wrote about our happiness in our family, health, success in work, strength in our faith, and being able to share the gospel with others.  

Todd wrote "Todd winning at everything" on his lantern. :)

At the main lighting area, hoards of people were coming in and out.  Our group had to go to a special waiting area until they were ready for us to set off our lanterns.  The President of Taiwan was going to be in attendance later so security was pretty strict.  People who had seats to watch the show had been there since dawn or the night before.

Here is the area they have set up for the lighting of the lanterns.  Each person in a pink hat was assigned one family to help with their lantern.  There would be 100 lanterns sent off at a time.  I think they said there were like 15 groups of 100 being sent off that night.  We were in the first group.

Sun is setting, almost time to set off our lanterns (you can see a couple black specks of other lanterns already sent off).

We quickly jotted down some things on this lantern.  We were even on TV briefly when a local TV channel asked us to be there special family to say what we had written on our lantern.  Kind of fun! 

Setting off the lanterns!!! Yay! I was trying to keep Sienna happy, since the TV crew was filming us and take pictures so I didn't get everything.  I feel like if we ever do this again, I won't take pictures though because I missed some of the moment by taking pictures rather than just enjoying it.  It was still incredibly awesome though, and definitely had the Tangled quality magic! A little smoky though!

Back at the restaurant, the home base for our other lanterns we wrote on earlier.  We sent these off one by one and got to enjoy the moment a little more.  All the while more lanterns were being sent off at the main area in sets of 100.   The sky would be lit up like there were tons of stars.  It was beautiful.

It was a great night and despite us getting home super late at night, Sienna actually did quite well and Elli apparently had tons of fun at our friend's house.  

I think we will try to bring her next year though if we go again.  

Not much can top that experience as far as the Lantern Festival goes, but we also really enjoyed the Lantern displays they had set up in a short bus ride from our home in downtown Taipei.  It was really crowded at night, but the girls and I also enjoyed some of the displays during a playgroup outing during the day.
Lots of fun--almost as good as seeing lots of Christmas lights in December in Texas.
  Here are some of our favorite displays.

There were lots of dragon light displays since dragons are viewed as the luckiest of animals.

They also had some indigenous cultural shows going on.  When asking for volunteers, Elli didn't wait to be picked, but ran right up on the stage to participate in making music with this wood instrument. 

 On a play date, same place during the day.

 This one below was made out of entirely recyclable materials! This is my friend Monika and her son Cole who Elli calls Cold.

Happy Lantern Festival and End of the the Lunar New Year Festivities!!

Happy Chinese New Year!

Mid February was Chinese New Year Time in Taiwan.

We ended the year of the Dragon and began the year of the Snake! 

Here is Elli roaring at our Lion Scroll, "HAPPY NEW YEAR!"

The Lunar Chinese New Year Festivities are about 2 weeks long and end in the Lantern Festival.  These holidays are probably their most important holidays all year. Kind of like Christmas in the US.

A little history if you care from Wikipedia "According to tales and legends, the beginning of Chinese New Year started with the fight against a mythical beast called theNian (Chinese: 年; pinyin: Nián). Nian would come on the first day of New Year to eat livestock, crops, and even villagers, especially children. To protect themselves, the villagers would put food in front of their doors at the beginning of every year. It was believed that after the Nian ate the food they prepared, it wouldn’t attack any more people. One time, people saw that the Nian was scared away by a little child wearing red. The villagers then understood that the Nian was afraid of the color red. Hence, every time when the New Year was about to come, the villagers would hang red lanterns and red spring scrolls on windows and doors. People also used firecrackers to frighten away the Nian. From then on, Nian never came to the village again."

People put food out in front of their homes and we definitely heard our share of firecrackers all night long on some nights.  The firecrackers are a string of red paper gunpowder packets and can be deafening.  Our family participated in hanging up the red scroll around our door and windows to celebrate good fortune, happiness, wealth, and longevity.  We also gave some presents to our building guard and helper in the traditional manner: Money in red paper envelopes called hóngbāo' (红包).  This is the main form of presents given to children from adults as well.  We didn't give any to the kids though-- they had christmas already! :)  During this time, some kids get quite a decent amount of cash.  Most parents take it to put into savings for school.

Potsticker Making:  One of the most important aspects of this holiday is getting together with your family and enjoying traditional food.  So my neighbor Lilu invited our family and other neighbors over for a night of traditional potsticker and dumpling making.  Lilu is from Beijing originally and it was so fun to learn from her and actually learn authentic chinese cooking. It actually took quite a long time to make the potstickers and you have to do it quickly before the dough dries.  That's why it is a family affair so that it can all get done in time.  

Lilu is the one standing.  My friends Addy (from Thailand), Monika, Sara, and I were all her pupils with a little help from little hands along the way.

Lilu's Dad from China came down for the holidays and was the master chef behind all the cooking.

Lilu was a strict task master-- I was told on a couple of occasions that I was doing it completely wrong (Lilu doesn't mince words) but she said I did pretty good at the end so I was really proud of my growth. 

 Oh how far I have come from defrosting ground beef meat in a sink full of water and ruining hamburger helper.

You have to roll the dough in a very particular manner and then you put in the filling and either fry or boil it.  These are what real potstickers and dumplings should look like! 

The dish below was called 7 vegetable dessert or something like that.  It took her dad half the day to cut up all the vegetables for this dish.  Lilu says that's why so many chinese and taiwans don't cook a lot because it takes too much time.  I have met many taiwanese people here that can't cook at all or cook very seldomly.  They eat out at local eateries often.

So while the woman were learning the art of dumpling making, the men were watching all the kids.

Or were they?

It was a super fun night and everything was so delicious.  I am very grateful to have such a cool friend here to teach me and enjoy the holiday with!

Dunhua Street - Chinese New Year Special Street Market

During Chinese New Year, there is a special street night market that is set up on one of the streets in Taipei.   It sells all sorts of decorations, snacks, and foods eaten especially at this time of year.  It is the quintessential place to go during chinese new year with all the food and goodies and decorations you will want to celebrate.  It was incredibly crowded, but nonetheless we stuck out like a sore thumb and our girls attracted a ton of attention as usual.

Above Elli and Daddy enjoying some fried fish balls (not my fav) and below you can see the candy heaven that was around every corner.  We bought a bag full of candy, but we really shouldn't have because people kept giving Elli free candy all night (more on that later.)  These bins filled with candy are as tall as Elli btw!

Bacon and Egg shaped candy.  Pretty fun.

Now to the drum barrels full of fried and dried shrimp, anchovies, and dried and flavored shredded meat. Yum.

Below is goat brains... no not really.  We actually had no idea what it was but it was disgusting looking.  Actually it could have been goat brains, who knows!

Do you think they will run out? 

More important question: How long has the stuff on the bottom been there?

Shredded feathery meat anyone?  These 5 foot crates should be able to satisfy your craving.

Beautiful caligraphy.  People often get three red signs or scrolls made to put on each side of the door.

The taiwan people love a massage and huge random stuffed animals.  Who doesn't? 

Another favorite specialty here in Asia are drinks with jello like things in them.  Utah - don't think you are the only ones who can get creative with some Jello!!!   Bubble Tea or Bubble drinks are all the rage here - drinks with little tapioca balls in them.  Other times they are more like little squares of floating jello in it.  Todd got one drink that was filled with warm milk and grass flavored jello.  He loved it, but it is definitely an acquired taste, and I have no desire to acquire it!  As you can see it was a hit with Sienna, though.  She got angry whenever we took it away.

So Happy Chinese New Year Everyone!! 

One last thing we got to do during the festivities is visit the Chang Kai Shek Memorial for a little show.  We got a little distracted with the birds in front of the Memorial area and missed the lion dance at the beginning but got to see a few other cool things!

There were sooooo many birds and Elli just loved it.  Of course, people kept sharing their bird food with her (there are some perks to having such an adorable blue eyed blonde girl in Taiwan) and she had a ball feeding them.  They landed on my arm (the bird Elli is feeding is sitting on my arm) and would eat straight out of your hand!  At one point I had a few ON me.  I made sure we sanitized afterwards...pretty sure I know how bird flu spreads so quickly here!

Such a giddy little girl!

After we saw the birds, we went into the memorial where this show was going on.  This girl was awesome! I love Chinese acrobatics.  It was really cool to watch.  

This guy.  Hmmm. All I can say is Bless His Soul.  He was the bubble man.  He did a 15 min. thing all with bubbles.  Coming right after the girl acrobat might have been a poor choice.

This guy sure had a hot outfit on.  Gray, sparkly spandex, high white leather boots, and a loose baby blue blazer ... wow!  Can't go wrong there.

Happy (Belated) Chinese New Year!