Taiwanese Traditions: The Lantern Festival

Lanterns from last years Lantern Festival

For the second year in a row, my wife and I have tried to make it to the Lantern Festival in our community.  Last year, it was on Sunday, which make it impossible for us to go, but this year it was on Monday.  The weather was beautiful that day, too.  Monday is the day we usually plan to go somewhere and do something.  We went, but we couldn't find it.

It was interesting because we went on the Taoyuan County website, and they talked about it being on Nankan Creek, but it wasn’t too specific about what part of the creek.  I would have thought that someone could have put a Google map on there to show where to go, but they didn’t.  I’m making myself a promise right here; right now, that next year I will make it to the festival.  To me, it’s the most interesting of all the festivals, which happen in Taiwan.  There is one other celebration that holds an interest for me, the Yan Shui Fireworks festival where they fire fireworks right at you.  You see people wearing heavy clothing and their motorcycle helmets while the fireworks smash against them.  That would be fun to see but I’m not sure about participating.  I’m old and slow and I think I’d be a sitting duck.

Lantern from the Year of the Rabbit

The Lantern Festival usually lasts about a month or couple of weeks, this year in Taoyuan County the festival lasted from January 28 through February 6, and is sometimes called, “little New Year.”  The Lunar New Year is, of course, the Big New Year.

There are a number of legends associated with the origin of this festival.  Many of the legends are associated with relationships between people and their gods. I found one of them to be very interesting:

The first is a legend that tells of a beautiful crane that flew from heaven to earthy.  When the crane landed on earth the people of a certain village killed it.  The Jade Emperor (The Emperor of Heaven) was angry and sent an army to destroy the people and the village.  Apparently the crane was the Jade Emperor’s favorite bird, so his plan was to destroy the village through a storm of fire on the fifteenth day of the first month according to the lunar calendar.

The Jade Emperor’s daughter warned the village of their impending disaster so that they could prepare.  The village people were frantic because thy had no idea how to turn away the wrath of the Jade Emperor until one wise man came up with an idea.  He said to hang lanterns and light bonfires throughout the city, so that when the soldiers arrived, they would think the village was already ablaze and leave without further damage.  The villagers embarked on that particular plan and the village was saved.

The interesting thing to me is the similarity to the legend surrounding the origin of the Chinese New Year traditions.  See Taiwanese Traditions:  Chinese New Year:  The Legend of Nian.

There are a number of ways that the lantern festival is celebrated in modern Taiwan.  This year, the Taoyuan Lantern Festival was an aquatic festival, where lanterns were lit and floated in Nankan Creek.  In Pingxi, the lanterns were lit and released into the sky. And In Yanshui, fireworks were lit and flew through the crowd.  In each, there are lanterns that are made.  Many are complex works of art that depict people and animals, as well as the sky lanterns on which are written wishes for the new year.  These are lit and released into the sky.  There are also lanterns on which riddles are written and children sped time to solve the riddles. 

The Beautiful Crane of the legend

It is a fun time where families and friends get together and enjoy each other.  There is also a romantic feeling as young couples stroll together and spend time together.  In the early days this was the time when young people strolled the streets with their chaperones in the hopes of finding a spouse.  Matchmakers were busy in the weeks prior to the Lantern Festival trying to find the best matches for the young people.  As marriages in Taiwan are no longer arranged this part of the festival has disappeared.  Now young people enjoy the festival with their lovers.

Other posts you may be interested in:


Taiwanese Traditions: Chinese New Year:  The Legend of Nian
Random Asianess:  Oh Sure, Now We Decorate
Taiwanese Traditions: Holidays and the Lunar Calendar

The Chateau Beach Besort: Traveling with Mr. Budget

The Chateau Beach Resort

I’m not what you would call a seasoned traveler.  I read these travel blogs sometimes, and I’m amazed at how people can travel all over the world; not just once but multiple times. They have all these tips about making the trip more comfortable, dealing with security, getting upgraded and the like, I know nothing about those things.  When you drive your own car on most of your trips and you sit in the front seat your upgrade choices are somewhat limited.  Besides, I never really left the United States all that much to go traveling. I went to Canada, and I spent a quite a few vacations in Mexico.  But outside of Taiwan I pretty much stayed on my own Continent.

If I tell the truth I’m not into traveling.  I like being places better than getting there.  I don’t mind driving to a place, but I hate going through all the trouble it takes to fly anywhere on a plane; from being at the airport early, to going through all that security, to sitting on the tarmac in crowded airplane.  It’s really bad when my butt starts to hurt and the plane hasn’t even left yet.  I know somewhere along the line I’m going to regret getting on the plane.

The thing I do love, though, is actually being someplace other than my own house.  I like to experience things that are unavailable in my own country or culture.  I’m pretty sure that’s one of the reasons I love living in Taiwan.  It’s not Southern California, and it isn’t likely to be…ever!  Its not that I hate Southern California, I don’t.  I lived there a long time; it’s just that…I lived there a long time.

When we decided to go to Kenting, I really didn’t think I wanted to drive.  I really wanted to try out the High Speed Rail, but after the trip I’m glad I drove.  It was nice to have the car while we were there and the trip turned out to be part of the fun.  The reason for taking the car was our usual concern, the budget.

The beach was right outside our door.

Mr. Budget, who has been our houseguest for more years than I care to remember, often guides our decisions.  I laugh when my children talk about how they’re going to buy this mansion or that super car.  After living with him all those years you’d think they know Mr. Budget.  But one day they’ll have him in their own family and then they’ll end up doing things his way, too.  In fact, I’m looking forward to the day they meet their own Mr. Budget.  They’ll be surprised when he moves in with them and controls their lives.  They think I’m controlling, no I’m just a dad, Mr. Budget will show them what control is really all about. 

Anyway, so now you know the reasoning behind driving to Kenting.  When we got there we stayed at a place called The Chateau Beach Resort.  I mentioned in my last post that this was our first real family vacation.  This was also the first time any of us stayed in a five star resort.  The place was fabulous.

Our room had an ocean view; in fact, we had a patio that opened to the beach less than fifty meters away.  The resort had water sports, beach volleyball, on their private beach, sailing, croquet, pool, a video arcade and lots of restaurants.   The staff was friendly, and willing to do whatever they needed to do to make your stay more pleasant.  The people at the front desk were fluent in English, which is helpful. 

You’re probably thinking, “All that talk about Mr. Budget and driving and then you stay at a place like that?  What is that all about?”  Its funny that you ask that, well not really, since you’re not here with me and I just wrote that you’d be asking that if you were here, but…  Anyway, the cost of the hotel room ($562 USD/night) for our four-day stay, during the peak-operating season would be substantially more than I would (could) pay for a hotel room.  It’s closer to what I paid for our car.  The price for dinner alone, at one of the restaurants, would have paid for the air conditioner repair on our car; the price of lunch four new tires. 

Look crowded, huh?  This is the sports staff.

But we went during their off season and because of the timing we got about a sixty percent discount.  The beach was secluded as if, it was there just for us.  There was little reduction in services, although I didn’t see the croquet lawn set up for croquet. 

Croquet is pretty close to the level of excitement with which I’m most comfortable.  It’s a little scary sometimes when balls are flying off the field.  But I can handle it, for real bone-chilling excitement I listen to the playlists on my kid’s iPods.  Now that frightens me.

Lots and lots of food choices.

The restaurants operate at their usual level of service.  The sports organizers are out there in the morning looking fit and ready to go.  The housekeeping staff is working hard and cheerfully helping you.  It all seems to work.  The only mishap of the week was when Mr. Budget wiped out on the boogie board.  Oh well, it wasn’t the first time Mr. Budget crashed in our lives; I don’t expect it’ll be the last either.

Watermelon Art

Clams

Sea Snails

Mussels, they also had Oysters and Shrimp, or a full Western meal with Beef and Lamb if you wanted.

Apple Art.  

Other posts you may be interested in:


Taiwan Travelogue:  Driving to Hawaii
Local Color:  The Colors of Kenting

Photos:  Chris and Brenda Banducci

Taiwan Travelogue: Driving To Hawaii

Right now I’m sitting at my computer in Taoyuan City.  The temperature is 16C.  (61F)  I would say this is cool, but not cold weather.  I can function pretty well at this temperature.  Because of my health issues when it gets cold, I hurt a lot, I can’t grab a hold of things, I have more difficulty standing.  But 16C I can handle all that.  The week before last it was a lot colder.

That was the week we had chosen for our first ever, family vacation.  We’ve traveled to visit family, and we’ve gone together to weeklong conferences, but this is the first time we just took some time off and just hung out together.  So we decided to drive down the coast to Hawaii.

Well, we didn’t actually go to Hawaii, but it felt like it.  When we left, at about 10:30 am the temperature in Taoyuan City was 9C (48F), when we arrived at our destination the Chateau Beach Resort in Kenting at 5:47 pm, the temperature was 21C (70F).  Ahhhhh! 

We decided to drive our car.  I had wanted to take the High Speed Rail but thought it a bit pricey.  It’s $1330 NTD ($45 USD) one-way for one person, from Taoyuan to Zouying Station in Gaoxiong City.  Then it’s another 480 NTD for the shuttle from Gaoxing to the Chateau, for my family of four that’s $14,480 NTD (about $482 USD) Round Trip.  The car took about half tank of gas ($1100 NTD or $36.67 USD) and about $360 NTD ($12 USD) in tolls.  That’s about $97.00 USD round trip.  I guess I don’t need to point out that I’m not a jet setter.  I don’t run into Paris Hilton when I’m traveling. 

Garmin:  A Good GPS system

It’s about a five-hour drive from Taoyuan to Kenting.  The drive is easy and fairly relaxing as you drive the tollway almost the entire route.  A good GPS system that warns you in advance of speed cameras, tollbooths and exits is helpful; especially the speed cameras which are hidden all over the freeway.  Most vehicles here don’t have cruise control.  Well, most of the vehicles I’ve driven didn’t have cruise control and you can find yourself zipping along at about 130 km/hr on a 110 km/hr road.  I don’t know the settings of the speed cameras and I don’t want to find out the hard way.  I never speed…honest…really. 

We stopped at one of Taiwan’s excellent rest stops on the way.  If you travel by road a lot in California, then you may then you may have trouble believing that rest stops can be great, but in Taiwan they’re great.  Our rest stop had all the comforts:  Gasoline station, mechanic shop, several restaurants arranged in a food court, a store and a huge parking area.  We decided to have lunch right there in the rest stop.  I had a variety of foods, my wife had steamed pork buns (Bao zi) and small steamed dumplings (Xiao Long Bao).  The kids chose not to eat real food but got containers of Caramel popcorn.  We spent about an hour and slipped back onto the road again. 

The only part that was inconvenient, I thought, was having to stop at so many toll booths.  They’re spaced about thirty kilometers (18.75 miles) apart. So about every half-hour you’re stopping to pay toll.  Toll is $40.00 NTD (or $1.30 USD).  Taiwan also has an electronic toll paying system so that you can just drive through, without having to stop.  You pay into an account in advance and they deduct the toll every time your car passes underneath the electronic reader. I don't drive the tollways enough to bother with it so I just stop and fork out the cash.

Near Gaoxiong you exit the toll road and drive on surface streets about another thirty or forty kilometers until you reach Kenting.  Kenting is right at the southern tip of the island.  I thought the scenery looked a lot like the area area surrounding Mazatlan, Mexico. That makes sense since Mazatlan is at 23 degrees N in latitude while Kenting is at 21 degrees N.  Honolulu is 19 degrees N.  Taoyuan City is 24 degrees N. but feels like it’s a lot closer to the Arctic Circle in January.  Next Post I’ll finish off the kenting adventure with a bit about the Chateau Beach Resort.

Brenda's Lunch at the Rest Stop

Exercise Facilities at Another Rest Stop:  I don't think this is their intended use.

Rest Stop Ice Cream

Some Random Scenery on the Road to Hawaii:

I don't know what these are for, but they're cool!

A Hotel in Taizhong

Bridge Superstructure

Photo Credits:  High Speed Rail:  http://members.virtualtourist.com/m/p/m/1ac6a5/

All other photo's Chris, Brenda and Emily Banducci

Local Color: The Colors of Kenting

Local Color: Taiwan Welcomes 2012

The Fireworks welcoming the New Year at the Taipei 101, the second tallest building in the world.

Footage by davidcandlelight:  http://www.youtube.com/user/davidcandlelight

Pathetical Analyticals 2011

Am I the Only One Who Cares?  Probably

Local Color:  The Colors of Yingge: May 2, 2011

Well, it’s time for the Pathetical Analyticals for 2011.  I call it “Pathetical Analyticals” because I think it’s kind of pathetic that I have to take this blog apart and analyze every aspect of what happened in it for the year.  It’s not so much that I feel a need to understand why I posted one thing or another.  I posted what I posted because it was interesting to me and I figured, if it was interesting to me, it might also be interesting to some other people who don’t know that much about Taiwan.  But what is pathetic is my need to break everything down into some kind of statistic:  To try to gain some meaning for the blog by examining the minutiae.  I wish that I was above that, but, once again I have fallen victim to my baser nature and did it anyway, so what follows is Pathetical Analyticals 2011 or by the alternate title:  Am I the Only One Who Cares?  Probably

What’s it all about?

First a bit about the Taiwan Adventure Blog:  In the beginning it was written purely as an informational tool for my family and friends.  I was leaving my home country and didn’t want to be writing separate emails all the time to dozens of people who might possibly be interested.   It was intended to chronicle our life in Taiwan as well as the church we came here to build.  But after a while, I separated the church website from the Taiwan Adventure.  I needed a website for the church and I felt after a while I was duplicating my efforts, so I split them.  The church website is at www.pottershousetaoyuan.blogspot.com.   The Taiwan Adventure, became a stand alone culture, history, travel, and food blog.  It has evolved into what it is, and probably there is more of the evolutionary process that will still take place.  

Taiwanese Traditions:  The Planting and Growing of Rice:  April 4, 2011

I think the blog has improved this year.  It has a better look for one thing and readership has increased dramatically.  I have also included a weekly feature, Photo Glimpses of Taiwan, which features photos that have been used or supplement the photos in the blog.   The really great part is that my posts have been picked up by We Blog the World and Go! Overseas.  These two websites have enormous readership and I believe they have really helped to increase traffic to the Taiwan Adventure.  In addition to these we have been featured a number of times in the feed aggregation, The Best of Taiwanderful and iTainan and a number of others.

Eating My Way Through Taiwan:  The Stink of Adventure:  July 11, 2011

The Taiwan Adventure is based in Taoyuan City, Taiwan.  Taoyuan is a city of about 380,000 people in Northeastern Taiwan.  During the winter it’s cold and during the summer it’s hot.  The other two seasons are superfluous because it’s either hot or its cold, there are only a few days in between.  Taoyuan is not a beautiful place.  But the people are warm and friendly and if I have to live somewhere I’m glad I live here.  I can drive to a pretty place, but as I’ve always said, people are where it’s at.  The Taiwan Adventure is really my look at Taiwan.  Everything is examined through the filter of an expat American.  I really try to understand the culture, and the things that cross my eyes, but sometimes I’m wrong because I look at through the filter of my life.  I can’t escape that.  So it is what it is.  So far no hate mail, so I guess I’m on the right path most of the time, but who knows, there’s not a lot of love mail or comments, either.

Statistically Speaking

The rest of the post will be made up of numbers and stats; some of them may even be meaningful.

Readership

Total views of the blog this year:  26,167 

Average Views per month:  2365.4
The Taiwan Adventure has readers in 129 countries.

Taiwanese History:  Sun Yat Sen:  Sept. 13, 2011

Over the course of the year the readership increased from 1,150 readers in January to 2,897 readers in December resulting in an average monthly increase in readers of 158.  This is a net gain of 151% for the year.  Of course there were peaks ad valleys, some months readership went down only to rebound the next month.  One of the biggest affects on readership was the number of posts.  An increase in the number of posts resulted in an increase in the number of readers; correspondingly a decrease in posts meant a decrease in readership.  Lesson for bloggers:  Consistency results in higher readership.  If you post regularly readership will always increase.  Inconsistent posting results in lower readership. 

The RSS feed did well as well.  We added the site to Feedburner in February and in 10 months there were 2,433 views on the feed with 917 clicks back to blog.  That means that about 38% of the views resulted in readers being driven to the blogsite.  This is the main purpose of a feed so that people will see your posts and want to go back to the original to see others.

Posts

This year I posted 42 different posts under 8 category headings.  I don’t usually break them into categories in the way a wordpress blog does.  Actually I categorize them through the use of a “header” in the title.  I use eight headers

Uncategorized

Taiwanese History

Taiwanese Traditions

Cultural Unawareness

Traveling with M13

Taiwan Travelogue

Random Asianess

Eating My Way Through Taiwan

Local Color:  Taoyuan City Ghost Festival Parade:  August 23, 2011

Something new this year is the use of a header titled Local Color.  The Local Color posts are photo essays of some place or topic I find visually interesting.  Rather than describe them, I just take a series of photos and include them.

Most are self-explanatory.  Cultural Unawareness are my mistakes at the culture that resulted in funny or embarrassing moments.  I’m hoping to phase this out this year; that it will become obsolete.  Traveling with M13. Mordeth13 is a friend of mine, and I have done a few things with him and his family.  These posts are the result of some interaction with him.  I hope to do more of these in the nest year. 

Top Five Posts

1.  Taiwanese History:  Sun Yat Sen           

     Total views since September 1,059 or 353 per month. 

2.  Taiwanese Traditions:  The Dragon Boat Festival             

     Total Views since June 2010 3,112 or 172 per month.

3.  Traveling with M13:  Custom Scooters of Taiwan             

     Total views since February 501 or 50 per month

4.  Taiwan Travelogue: The National Palace Museum            

     Total views since March 437 or 49 per month

5.  Taiwanese History:  Double Tenth day            

     Total views since October 2010 468 or 33 per month.

Sun Yat Sen is considered to be the Father of Modern China.  This post has been the single most popular post I have written on this blog.  It will be interesting to see if it has the kind of staying power that the Dragon Boat Festival has had. The Dragon Boat Festival is still popular after 18 months.

Taiwan Travelogue:  The North Coast:  September 20, 2011

My Personal Favorite Posts

For various reasons I like the following posts the best.  I think they are the best written and I’ve had the most fun talking about them with other people.  They’re listed in order according to how well I liked them. 

1.  Eating My Way Through Taiwan:  The Stink of Adventure

     A very funny post on Stinky Tofu, that also appeared in Zite magazine for iPads.

2.  Taiwanese Traditions:  The Planting and Growing of Rice

     A post on Rice Planting in Taiwan, contains my favorite picture of Taiwan ever.

3.  Local Color:  The Colors of Yingge

     Photo essay:  I think Yingge is a cool place…It’s also very colorful

4.  Random Asianess:  Oh Sure, Now We Decorate

     Talks about decorating for Chinese new Year.  It is the next post after my      complaining about not decorating for Christmas.

5.  Taiwanese Traditions:  The Dragon Boat Festival

     I’m only including this because everyone else reads it.

Taiwanese Innovation:  Magic Click Shoes:  December 13, 2011

Top Traffic Sources

Of course some people, just go straight to the blog.  I know it sounds hard to believe but there are a few faithful readers.  In fact, 11% of the readers on the blog have visited more than 101 times.  So, I guess some people are regulars.

Google                         7,764 referrals

Expat Blogs                     299 referrals

Taiwan Bloggers              188 referrals

The Google referrals breakdown like this:

Google.com                  5,225

Google.com.ca                603      Canada

Google.co.uk                   579       United Kingdom

Google.com.ph                578        Philippines

Google.com.au                292        Australia

Google.com.tw                250        Taiwan

Google.com.sg                 237        Singapore

Top Keywords

Taiwan Flag                   416

Dragon Boats                182

Taiwanese Traditions     121

Mordeth 13                     99

Sun Yat Sen                   54

Other Places where the Taiwan Adventure can be found (or at least a link):

We Blog the World 

Go! Overseas.com

Taiwanderful.net

Eye on East Asia

Expat Blogs

There are some other places but some of them are really temporary.

Announcements

www.taiwangongfutea.com

The Taiwan Adventure is now an integral part of Taiwan Gongfu Tea.  This company is a startup website to sell Taiwanese Teas over the internet.  The plan for the future includes franchises in America where Taiwanese Tea can be distributed to fine tea sellers as well as offering the Gongfu Tea experience in a comfortable, Taiwanese styled Tea Room.  In addition to the Taiwan Adventure there will be a blog about the types of tea grown in Taiwan, the methods of brewing, how tea is grown and harvested and other information about tea; specifically Taiwanese tea.  This blog will be appropriately titled The Tea Blog. 

Finally, The Taiwan Adventure won first place in the category of General blog in the popular vote at taiwanderful.net’s 2011 Top Taiwan Blog Awards.  We appreciate the support of our readers and would like to welcome new readers as a result of the competition.  Thank you for your votes.  We also want to congratulate the other winners.  It always amazes me how many excellent English language blogs there are in Taiwan. 

Here is a link so you can see the results first hand. Taiwanderful