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Konfu members celebrated the Lantern Festival this month. The Lantern Festival is a symbol of the end of New Year holidays. The origin of lightening lanterns is believed to start from Emperor Hanmingdi, who was an advocate of Buddhism. He heard that monks lit lanterns to worship Buddha on the 15th day of the first lunar month.

Lanterns of various shapes and sizes are hung in the streets and children hold lanterns to stroll in the streets. Solving ‘lantern riddles’ is a popular traditional activity that riddles are written slips of paper attached to lanterns. And those who can correctly answer it will get a price.

People eat tangyuan in Lantern Festival. Tangyuan sounds like tuanyuan, which means ‘reunion’ and as symbol of family reunion. Common fillings in tangyuan are peanut, sesame, red bean and recently there’re also innovative flavours like matcha or milk tea.

Taiwan Lantern Festival started from 1990 and was held in Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Park in Taipei for many years, which is a warm and sparkling memory for the Taipei citizens. Since 2001, the event changes to different locations across the island every year. And it returns to Taipei after 23 years.

The festival spreads over 168 hectares with four main exhibition areas, over 300 exhibits. The main lantern robot rabbit is animated with lights and sounds every 30 minutes for about 3 minutes in Dr. Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall. The excitement and sense of belonging is memorable when watching the show with many people around just like the countdown in Times Square, or any other city in New year's eve.