Pingxi Sky Lantern Festival

A signal of safety

Pingxi is a remote hill town in New Taipei City, and its sky lanterns grew out of local history. Settlers arrived from southern China in 1821. In the Qing dynasty the remote villages were hard for the government to protect, and after the winter harvest, when hungry bandits were most likely to strike, villagers sometimes hid in the mountains, leaving the able-bodied men to defend their homes. When the danger had passed, the men released lanterns to tell their families it was safe to return. Another story holds that the lanterns began as prayers released at the start of spring planting, when women wished for children and a plentiful harvest. Sky lanterns themselves, also called Kongming lanterns, are traditionally credited to Zhuge Liang, a chancellor of the Three Kingdoms period, who used them to send military messages.

At the end of the twentieth century the custom became an annual celebration of the Lantern Festival, and in 2008 New Taipei City recognised it as a municipal folk custom.

Writing a wish

The festival is organised by the New Taipei City Government, and admission is free. Each day brings sessions at three venues — Jingtong Elementary School, Pingxi Junior High School and, last and most crowded, Shifen Sky Lantern Square — and thousands of free lanterns are handed out to visitors. On the day of the Lantern Festival itself, a huge main lantern is released at Shifen.

A lantern is made from strips of makino bamboo — guìzhú, a pun on the word for prosperity — and rice paper strengthened with hemp fibre, with four or five sides on which to write wishes. To release one, check the paper for tears, write your wish, hook a piece of oil-soaked joss paper to the wire at the bottom, open the lantern out while someone holds it steady, light the paper and let go once the hot air lifts it.