The Taiwan Lantern Festival meets Covid-19…..!

It’s the final weekend of this huge extravaganza, Taiwan’s annual Lantern Festival with lanterns, light shows and huge crowds of people everywhere ~ and in the midst of them all there’s a few lanterns dedicated to Covid-19, made by the Taiwan Prisons Department ~ they’ve certainly attracted a lot of attention! This is the best one…

Since I’ve been back in Taiwan, life has revolved around the Chinese Lunar New Year celebrations – and now the Lantern Festival for the Year of the Rabbit. The main Taiwan Lantern Festival this year is hosted by Taipei City ~ thousands and thousands of people descend every evening on the lantern festival sites at Sun Yat-Sen Memorial Hall, Songshan Cultural Park (the old tobacco factory), City Hall and Taipei 101. There’s plenty to see and do and take photos of, with rabbits galore, and lanterns made by different groups of people, including many by children. The centrepiece is a huge rabbit lantern that revolves every half an hour…

There’s a huge variety ~ these are a few of my favourites…

There’s also new street art associated with the Lantern Festival…

And we did an evening trip up Xiangshan (Elephant Mountain) to see the view – you can even see and hear the Lantern Festival from up there too…

There’s so much to see! The Taiwan Blue Magpie Lantern is one of the most beautiful, and the bird on the top revolves round in a circle…

All worth seeing if you’re in Taipei this weekend!

And finally, just published this week by the Church Mission Society, my latest link letter, including my new postal address – click on the link below…

With the end of the Lantern Festival, so it is the start of the new term and new semester for many of Taiwan’s colleges and universities this coming week. In a few days, facemask restrictions will be lifted for those indoors including children, students and teachers at schools and colleges, all that is except in care homes, medical facilities and public transport – although it’s expected that many people will continue to wear them as a matter of course. Lent is coming too, with Ash Wednesday this coming week. For once, Lent has not overlapped with the celebrations of Chinese New Year or Lantern Festival. It feels like life has been one long celebration since the start of Advent – perhaps it’s time for a bit of reflection, contemplation and penitence! If you’re in Taipei City, then come along to St. John’s Cathedral for our Ash Wednesday Service at 7:30 pm, or to our regular Sunday services, 9:00 am in English, 10:30 am in Chinese and a combined Chinese / English service on the last Sunday of each month at 10:30am. Welcome ~ and see you there!