DELIGHTFU L FOLK E X PER IENCE / DIHUA S TREE T
TE X T RICK CH A RE T TE PHOTOS AS K A CHI , R AY CH A NG , TA IPE I X I A H A I CIT Y GOD TE MPLE , TA IPE I LUN A R NE W Y E A R FESTI VA L
Taiwan Chinese NEW Year Tra Dihua Street and the Taipei Lunar New Year Festival Come explore Dihua Street in Dadaocheng, the city’s best-preserved old commercial street in one of its oldest neighborhoods, while enjoying the crowds and revelry produced by one of Taipei’s best-loved seasonal celebrations
T
he two-week-long Taipei Lunar New Year Festival is a huge public celebration leading into the Chinese New Year holidays. Centered on historic Dihua Street in the city’s heritage-rich Dadaocheng neighborhood, it is a shopping festival, with people streaming into the area to stock up on traditional New Year food goodies and auspicious decorations, and also a cultural festival, with “edu-celebration” of New Year traditions. As in other lands, the demands of modern living oblige citizens to keep their eye on the future, resulting in a waning understanding of the roots of their culture, and many of this festival’s activities are specifically designed to teach revelers the “whys” behind the seasonal things they buy out of habit. In the lead-up to the Chinese New Year holidays in 1996, local vendors organized the first version of the festival. It has since grown almost dramatically and become a key annual city tourism attraction. Today it is overseen by the city government, with a private organization seconded to run the event. Other commercial districts have been brought in to share in the fun. These are on the city’s west side. The west district, along the Tamsui River, was the first Taipei area to develop. Over the past half-century or so the city’s economic center has shifted steadily east, leaving the west behind, and in more recent years the city government has been using the Lunar New Year Festival and other initiatives to celebrate the west’s history and revive its economic fortunes.
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TR AVEL IN TAIWAN
Stall selling Lunar New Year goodies
