David on Formosa

Last night I visited the Taipei Lantern Festival (臺北燈節) at Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall and Taipei City Hall. The exit of the Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall was also decorated with lights — it looks great with Taipei 101 in the background.

Although there were a good number of people at Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall, it wasn’t too crowded. That made it easy to walk around and take lots of photos.

In the Year of the Cow, cow lanterns were the main theme. Black and white Holsteins seemed popular as did water buffalo. There were also cows wearing a wide range of colorful costumes.

Part of the display at SYS Memorial Hall also included promotion for the Deaflympics which will be held in Taipei from 5-15 September. There were statues of the frog mascot in various sporting poses bearing the names of many of the countries that will compete in the Deaflympics. The one for Australia was very appropriately dedicated to cycling.

Taipei City Hall was lit up with projections of art work by leading Taiwanese artists. The art covered a variety of styles. I was particularly impressed by the Atayal warriors.

The 2009 Taipei Lantern Festival continues until Sunday 15 February. More photos in the Taipei Lantern Festival set at flickr.