https://mastodon.social/@camelliakyoto/113563708706121491 camelliakyoto@mastodon.social - 🎇🏮CHINESE LANTERN FESTIVAL🏮🎆
Kyōto has many light-up events during the autumn, but Manpuku-ji's is something to behold.
As one might expect from one of the country's few Chinese-style temples, the colourful lanterns are heavily influenced by festivals on the mainland.
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Seoul Winter Festival: ‘Most-visited public festival in the world’
#Taiwan is currently celebrating the #lanternfestival. That means that many cities and counties have light installations at a designated place, with one (Tainan?) being the "official" one. Yesterday I went to the #Kaohsiung lantern #festival at the Lotus Pond.
Behind the camera is the Confucius Temple, so in the far right corner are the Tiger and Dragon pagodas, rather small from here. Those two pagodas and the Five-Mile-Pavilion in the pond are the main sources for the regular light shows.
I'm walking counter-clockwise around the pond and get my first light show from a bad angle, since both the pagodas and the pavilion are obscured by other buildings/statues.
I'm not sure, but this building may still belong to the Confucius Temple. At least it is the last building I encounter for a while, crossing a shortcut bridge. I really liked the reflections in the water.
You wouldn't have guessed that now is the year of the rabbit, right? Those subtle hints can easily be overlooked...
Even a number of bicycles carried more light than usual. Yes, I was a bit slow...
Temples can't possibly lose to bicycles, so they too were lit up way more than usual. And there are several temples around the pond...
No festivity without eating! You may wonder however where all the people are. The answer: They are where the good stuff is. Patience, I walked less than half the way so far...
There were of course several smaller performances, for example this fire dancer. OK, that wasn't too exciting for me, because our campus has its own fire dance club and I see them practice every Tuesday after my violin class. Once they also practiced(? performed?) in our college's courtyard. I'm tempted to say that our students are better...
Got some toys to sell that are related to light? Now is the time...
No, those are of course not real plants. And each of them carries a number of LEDs to light them up.
What makes you think that this is the year of the rabbit? Seriously, where did you get that idea from?
Now this is where the good stuff is. I had planned not to eat anything there, but... As the Human League once sang: I'm only human...
As you may have guessed already: These are the Tiger and Dragon Pagodas. At regular times they already do not exactly lack lighting at night, since they are a famous landmark of Kaohsiung. That light is however plain yellow. At regular times you can also climb up to the top. Now however they are dotted with moving heads (the black devices) and lightbars (at the ceilings), making up one half of the light show, so you can't get in. In case you wonder how those moving heads look like in action, they look like this:
Have you seen "Laputa" by Studio Ghibli? Do you remember Goliath, the large military airship? That was my first thought...
And this is the other half of the light show, the Five-Mile-Pavilion in the pond. (The pagoda on the left is part of the entrance to it.) Here they planted moving heads on the pavilion and the walkway to it. In summer I really like that pavilion: Since it is quite a bit in the pond (though not in the middle), it isn't so hot there. Should you ever visit the Lotus Pond in summer, go to this pavilion to take a break.
Now they look like Goliath, right?
The pagodas, pavilions etc around the pond may have their own lighting and therefore power supply, but that is way too underpowered when a big light show comes along. So both the pavilion and the pagodas had these portable generators running near them.
Apologies for the long post, I do indeed have a few more photos (and videos), but that would have been too much. If you hurry, you can still take a look, the festival ends on Sunday.
