Taiwan’s Pingxi Sky Lantern Festival has been chosen as one of the 52 things to do in 2013 by CNN Travel, a website belonging to U.S.-based CNN.
In their article “52 weeks, 52 things to do in 2013” published Jan. 1, Duncan Forgan and Tara Donaldson said ethnic Chinese in many cities across Asia light and release lanterns on the first full moon after the Lunar New Year.
However, “one of the most spectacular celebrations is held in the mountain town of Pingxi in northern Taiwan, to which thousands of people trek each year,” the article said, adding that during the festival, “individuals buy lanterns, write their wishes inside and release them into the heavens simultaneously.”
The 2013 Pingxi Sky Lantern Festival will run Feb. 14-24, an official with the New Taipei City Government said.
Other events listed by CNN Travel include camel wrestling in Selcuk, Turkey; El Colacho Baby Jumping Festival in Castrillo de Murcia, Spain; Just For Laughs Festival in Montreal, Canada; and Yorkshire Pudding Boat Race in Brawby, North Yorkshire, England.
Separately, the Los Angeles Times published an article Jan. 1 introducing the Pasta’ay ceremony of Taiwan’s indigenous Saisiyat tribe.
The event is “a tribute to a lost tribe of pygmies” and is held “every two years to thank the vanquished tribe for teaching its neighbors [the Saisiyat] how to farm when they shared a steep, forested region of Taiwan just south of today’s main high-tech district.”
The Saisiyat, one of 14 officially recognized Austronesian indigenous groups in Taiwan, have a population of 6,100 centered in the northern counties of Hsinchu and Miaoli. Interested readers can find out more at the Council of Indigenous Peoples website. (THN)
Write to Grace Kuo at mlkuo@mofa.gov.tw