Sky lantern festivals are a common event in most of East and Southeast Asia, but there is one that stands out above all the others in terms of popularity. This is the Sky Lantern Festival of Pingshi, in the Taiwanese New Taipei City. Held 15 days after the Chinese Lunar New Year, this is an annual tradition in which sky lanterns are lighted and released all over the city.
Like most lantern festivals in Asia, Taiwan’s Sky Lantern Festival uses lanterns made up of bamboo of pieces of oiled paper. The lantern also has a candle inside which, when lighted, causes the air inside the lantern to heat up and to lighten, allowing the lantern to rise up into the air.
In Asian culture, lantern festivals are used as a way of celebrating or of warding off evil. In Pingshi, this festival is rooted in a tradition with a more utilitarian purpose: a message to convey one’s safety to one’s family. The city used to be a remote hillside village and home of humble farmers and other workers, who are often besieged by robbers. Farmers used the lantern to signal to their families, friends, or co-workers that they are safe.
The need for the lanterns as warning signals has now passed, but the Sky Lantern Festival has evolved into something more festive. In modern times, each year the Pingshi area annually plays host to thousands of tourists, all of them eager to witness the lanterns lighting up the sky. Locals and visitors alike also usually write their wishes on the lantern believing that this will bring good luck and that the rising of the lanterns will make the wishes come true.