Take a moment and imagine fantastical music playing as thousands of individuals silently watch hundreds of lanterns fly away into the night sky. This is exactly the atmosphere and serenity I experienced at the 2024 Pingxi Lantern Festival. This annual festival takes place in Pingxi, a district in New Taipei City. This year Pingxi’s celebration occurred on the 19th and 24th of February.
Traditionally, since the Lantern Festival is at the end of the Lunar New Year, which marks the start of spring, I was very fortunate to be able to attend this year with some of my other Fulbright friends. We took a train from Taipei Main Station to Ruifang Station in the Pingxi district. We then took a public bus to the town of Shifen where the release of the lanterns occurred.
Since it was the last weekend of the celebration, it was especially crowded with not only Taiwanese from all over the country but also many foreigners. For the Pingxi Lantern Festival, it is estimated that around 100-150 lanterns are released at the same time. This is done in 20-minute intervals (nine releases in total per night) from 6:00 p.m.
