Festivals in Taiwan
Historical Background of Lantern Festival.
The Lantern festival is the first major festival after the Spring festival. It gives ritual closure for the transition between the old and new years, and climaxes the activities to welcome spring. There are lanterns show and also flying lanterns.
I had the chance to go to Pingxi Lanterns Festival, near Taipei. It was magical. It looked like the sky was studded with thousands of little stars becoming smaller and smaller. I even started my own personalized lantern.
Historical Background of Chinese New Year (農曆新年).
According to legend, in ancient China, Nian (年), a man-eating predatory beast from the mountains, could infiltrate houses silently. Nian was sensitive to loud noises and the color red. So fireworks and the color red are supposed to scare it away.
Traditionally, the festival was a time to honor deities as well as ancestors.
The celebration is made with Chinese New Year's Eve- annual reunion dinner. Thoroughly cleanse the house to sweep away any ill fortune and to make way for good incoming luck. Windows and doors are decorated with red color paper-cuts and couplets with popular themes of "good fortune" or "happiness", "wealth", and "longevity". And the other activities include lighting firecrackers and giving money in red paper envelopes.
Shedule of Taiwanese Festivals :
Religions in Taiwan
The majority of the indigenous population of 507,000 aborigines is Protestant or Roman Catholic.
Traditions have been preserved in Taiwan. Even the youngest ones respect the traditions as well as the festivals. It's all part of their culture and they're really proud of it.
Burning Incense ( 燒香 Shaoxiang ) is usually called Worship ( 拜拜 Baibai ).
Burning incense is a custom passed down from ancient worshiping rituals.
When the ancient Chinese rendered cults to God and ancestors, they usually burned their sacrifices or simply certain plants to make heavy smoke, thinking that they could communicate with spirits through the smoke.
There are many customs concerning the folk practice of burning incense. One of them is the so-called Burning the First Incense Stick ( 搶頭香). The First Incense Stick refers to the first stick burnt in the incense burner, especially in the New Year. Common folk think the first incense stick has the greatest merits and that they can receive the best fortune from it, so they often try to burn the first incense stick.
Family customs in Taiwan
In Taiwan, family is really important. Most of the time, families are multigenerational. When they go in vacation, they take their van and all the family goes in. Grandmother, grandfather, children, parents… they all leave together. And most of the time, they also live together.
The girls are very "supervised" by their family. For example, when I read the rules of the dormitories of my university, the strictest rules were imposed on girls, while boys did not have to obey the rules. They could not leave the dormitory after 10 pm, they could not enter the dormitory after 10 pm. They were not allowed to visit the boys ... All these rules were only applied to girls. I found it quite unfair and shocking.
After talking with several Taiwanese friends, I realized that the family had a lot of power over young people. So we see 100% of young people going to university. The family forces them to go to the minimum of Bachelor degree, to make the family proud and not to dishonor it. Very few continue in Master degree. I think that the fact that they are forced to go to university is the cause of their obvious lack of motivation in course. Very few are listening to teachers. They eat and drink in class. And when the teacher asks a question, none answers, even if a particular student is designated, he will simply not answer the question. Only university exchange students, and therefore from other countries listen, take notes, participate ... This is a surprising way of education.