Yanshui Beehive Fireworks

As the Lantern Festival arrives, various kinds of celebrations take place throughout the island. Families eat tangyuan (湯圓) and carry lanterns to join the festival, while temples hold ceremonies in which people light worship candles. What's more, cities take turns to host lantern festivals and set off fireworks. Yet the biggest bright spot of the Lantern Festival lies in Yanshui Beehive Fireworks, a folk celebration as famous as Pingxi's Sky Lanterns and Taitung's "Bombarding Lord Handan (炸寒單)". In the celebration, believers and other participants follow the palanquin procession of the deity and walk around the town. Wearing old clothes and circling towels around their necks, they equip themselves with full-face helmets and invite blasting firework rockets to hit on their bodies. It is said that the more violent they are bombarded, the less bad luck they keep from the last year, and thereby they're going to have a smooth new year. Since the millennium, Yanshui Beehive Fireworks have become a large-scale folk celebration hosted by the government. Every year, the event attracts hundreds of thousands to participate, with the whole town surrounded by deafening sounds of the firecrackers, music played by the Taiwanese Electric Flower Cars, and the noise made by the crowds. Street vendors along the way provide food and entertainment to the visitors. At the main venue of the event, there are even more than five hundred thousand firework rockets hoarded horizontally in a huge major rack. These firework rockets will be launched during the dozens of minutes when the event reaches its climax. Fully-protected visitors dance with music played by the DJ, let firework rockets blast off freely in the crowds, and enjoy the thrill more violent than a ride on roller coaster. At the end of the celebration, there is usually a low-level fireworks display to watch. Massive fireworks explode at two dozen meters from the ground, the sounds and images awe-inspiring, drawing a perfect ending for the vibrant festival.

Because Yanshui is a town near the sea, in the past it welcomed immigrants crossing the strait from Fujian, China, most of whom make their living by fishing. Legend has it that a plague broke out in the town during the reign of Emperor Guangxu (光緒帝) in the Qing dynasty. At that time, Western medicine had not yet been prevalent, so the townspeople could only turn to the deities for help. Through divinations, Guan Gong (god of war, 關聖帝君) commanded people circle the town with his statue carried in a palanquin. He also instructed them to set off firework rockets along the way. After that, the custom has been passed down. Nowadays, businesses running well in the year are willing to sponsor firework rockets to make Guan's palanquin pass in front of their stores, which is believed to bring a smooth year. Later, as the number of participants increases, some believers or residents in the procession are inevitably wounded by the firework rockets. As a result, the custom activity gradually evolves. People now throw firecrackers directly to others in the event.