閃耀的一刻                               

“Ci, get ready, I will take you to watch the lantern festival tonight.” Nodding her head, she changed her clothes slowly.

“Ding Dong”, the doorbell rang. A-Deng, my brother-in-law and his daughter, Ha, had ridden their bicycle to arrive at my house. I was glad to see them to join us.

The 2009 Taipei Lantern Festival, held from Feb.6 ^th to 15 ^th in the Dr. Sun Yat Sen Memorial Hall and the Citizen Square, has been held annually since 1997. The main theme is the ox, the zodiac animal this year, and the festival was combined withthe 2009 International Deaflympic Games in Taipei.

Thousands of visitors swarmed into the Memorial Hall and the Citizen Square. It was amazing to see all the scenery in lights at night; Colorful, glorious, and jingling, like living in heaven. Outside the building, the huge major lantern, Moo Moo, an ox wearing taekwondo uniform,powerfully and confidently stood there.

There are sixteen stops in the lantern competition zone. For example, in the lantern zone of happiness,the Macau traditional rickshaw move in front of MaZu temple, ruins of St. Paul’s, Macau tower, and the rotating the statue of Kun Lam. It made me think about war and peace in the year of 1960. The scene really caught everybody’s eye. Beside by them, a group of panda lanterns were falling in the love zone. Banners read” Lighted ox brings miracles”, “The ox celebrates the harvest” to depict rural life of the past. Some of them were sponsored by local temples.

The visitors were crowded into the Riddle Campaign Center. People waited in a long line to answer the clues in order to get the prize. “What is the smallest island in the world?” Ha said, “It was a pedestrian island.”

The singing and dancing performances were regularly scheduled. The city distributed to the people free hand lanterns of the ox with flashing lights. Anybody could get one if he brought two city tax receipts.

Watching a foreign street musician singing and playing guitar, I encouraged Ci to drop a coin into a box. She did it but asked the reason.

The Yuanxiao festival is called a small New Year and is the closing celebration in the Lunar New Year. It’s a long-standing traditional festival, originating in ancient times. It is meant to be a time for families to gather and invoke the blessing of the gods for peace and harmony in the coming year. Yuanxiao is a kind of food, round and sticky, which is made of sweet rice. People will make them together and eat them that day, just like eating moon cakes during the Mid-Autumn Festival.

The 15^thof January in the Lunar year calendar is also called Valentine’s day. Usually ladies were not allowed to leave their rooms in ancient times, but they could stay out to appreciate the lanterns in the evening. All of these, lantern zones of love, of prayer, of tradition, and of glob architecture were displayed. There were small depictions: small worlds of Europe, Africa, Oceania, Asia, and America; It was like passing through the Disney World.

Ci played a basketball in the booth. She took pictures with froggy, the mascot of the 2009 international Deaflympic Games. She also got a champion photo. She became a lively girl again. The 2009international Deaflympic Games will be held in Taipei from Sep9^th to Sep.15 ^th

During the New Year’s celebration, the fireworks and Ping Xi in Taipei county event-fang tian deng and parade, all the traditional events were held in Taiwan’s other cities. After the Yuanxiao Lantern Festival the celebration of the New Year will be ended. Like after Christmas inwestern countries, things will return to normal.

 “Are you happy?” Ha asked Ci. An excited, brightlight appeared in Ci’s eyes. Raising my head, I watched the 101 skyscraper standing in the sky and the clear moon hiding in the clouds.