Happy Lantern Festival

The fifteenth day of the first lunar festival is celebrated as Lantern Festival. It marks the first full moon of the new year and various types of colored lanterns, both simple and elaborate, can be seen wherever Chinese culture exists.

In Taiwan, the festival becomes more popular each year, with more and more cities hosting activities and creating artistic displays of lanterns. The above photo is from the banks of the Love River in Kaohsiung.

Sky lanterns made of oiled rice paper on bamboo frames are very common throughout East Asia. When the lantern is lit inside, the lower density of the hot air causes the lantern to float into the sky. This photo was shot in Hualien, on the east coast of Taiwan.

I hope you enjoy lantern festival this year. Best wishes.