RS100:Pingxi Sky Lantern Festival / 平溪天燈節 Traditional Cache
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RS100:Pingxi Sky Lantern Festival / 平溪天燈節
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The Pingxi Sky Lantern Festival was included in Fodor’s list of 14 Festivals to Attend Before You Die.
Shifen is located at the source of the Keelung River. The power of the rushing water has modified the layers of rock formations, creating beautiful scenery and several clusters of waterfalls.Shifen, which means there used to be ten families working together to build the home. Shifen Waterfall locates in Ping River (Pingsi) Township in Taipei County. It locates in the Shifen stop of the Ping River (Pingsi) railroad and the bus stop of Dahua at the upper part of the waterfalls in Keelung River. It is a great waterfall with the big force of the current vast. It is the greatest screen curtain style waterfall in Taiwan. The pond underneath the waterfall is very deep. The waterfall is like hundreds of soldiers and millions of horses running down. This gives you the feeling of a blanket of white silk satin falling into a great wide deep pond. The water of the waterfall forms hydrosphere flowing above the waterfall. When the sun shines, the reflection forms a rainbow showing the clear sky with the beautiful rainbow. That is why it has the name of rainbow pond. Besides, because of the ways of the rock is opposite to the flow of water. It belongs to the contrary waterfall. This circumstance resembles is the same as the Niagara Falls. That is why it got the name of Taiwan's Niagara Falls.
The Pingxi Sky Lantern Festival is the epitome of lantern festival celebrations in Taiwan. It has been named by Fodor’s as one of the 14 Festivals To Attend Before You Die, called “the second biggest New Year’s Eve celebration in the world” by the Discovery Channel, and is one of CNN’s 52 Things To Do. Historically, sky lanterns were released as a signal telling those hiding in the mountains from ransacking marauders that it was now safe to return to their villages. The practice originated from the traditions of settlers who came to Pingxi from the Minnan (southern) region of China during the Qing Dynasty. At the end of the 20th century, as people began to value and respect local cultural traditions, the practice of releasing sky lanterns was turned into an annual celebratory event for the lantern festival, held on the 15th day of the first month of the lunar calendar. Incorporating local history, religion, and culture, the Pingxi Sky Lantern Festival is a classic example of a regional festival that developed and spread into a nation-wide celebration.
Believed to be a predecessor of hot air balloons, sky lanterns, also known as Kongming lanterns, were invented by Zhuge Liang (181 – 234), a chancellor during the Three Kingdoms period, whose courtesy name was Kongming. The lanterns were initially used to convey military messages. There are various speculations as to how sky lanterns became a tradition in Pingxi. In 1821, settlers from China arrived in the Pingxi district and began building villages in the surrounding area. During the Qing Dynasty, these remote villages were difficult for the provincial government to control and protect, leaving them vulnerable to brigands. To protect themselves, villagers sometimes packed up and hid in the mountains after the winter solstice when the final harvest was complete (the season when bandits, driven by hunger, were most likely to attack), leaving only able-bodied men to defend their village. After the worst of the winter passed, the men in the village would release lanterns to signify safe passage for the villagers return. This practice eventually evolved into the Sky Lantern Festival of today. In another telling of the origins of the festival, some believe that sky lanterns started out as prayer lanterns released at the beginning of spring planting each year. Since women at the time often wished for more children to add to the number of hands working on the family farm, they would release sky lanterns with invocations for smooth childbearing and plentiful harvests. As the number visitors at the Pingxi Sky Lantern Festival has grown in recent years, the festival has gained as much recognition as the renowned Yanshui Beehive Rocket Festival in Southern Taiwan. The Pingxi Sky Lantern Festival has been named “the second biggest New Year’s Eve celebration in the world” by the Discovery Channel and listed in 52 Things To Do by CNN. In fact, even Fodor’s, the world's largest publisher of English language travel and tourism information, has listed the festival as one of the 14 Festivals To Attend Before You Die. In 2008, the festival was recognized as a municipal folk custom event by New Taipei City and nominated to be included in UNESCO’s World Heritage List.
It is important to follow these steps when releasing sky lanterns:
1. Check the lantern for any external damage; the lantern cannot fly if the heated air leaks out.
2. Write your wish on the lantern.
3. Take a piece of oil-soaked joss paper and hook it to the wire piece at the bottom of the lantern.
4. Gently pull open the lantern so that all four upper corners are fully open and level; someone should also hold the lantern in position at the bottom to be sure enough heated air enters the lantern to push it upwards.
Light the joss paper and wait until hot air fills and expands the lantern before releasing it.
The GPS singal here is floating! The container is a small round canister. Only a log-paper in it. Please bring a pen for this cache.
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Zntargvp
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