Taiwan: Yuan-Hsiao Festival: carry a lantern, play firecrackers, and worship deities · Global Voices
I-fan Lin

Nowadays, people in Taiwan start working in the fifth day after lunar new year eve.  However, in tradition, the 15th day, Yuan-Hsiao Festival, is the the last day of the holidays.
Based on Alanruo, these full-moon festivals are related to the productive cycles in agriculture.  At the start of spring, Yuan-Hsiao Festival is full of the expectancy for life, and this is why farmers hope for abundant harvest, women hope for children, and singles gather together during this festival.
凡是月圓型的節日，大致都與農耕生產週期有關。春天適值農作伊始，過節時充滿對生命的盼望，元宵的活動中便蘊含豐富的生命意識，舉凡農夫祈求豐收、婦女求子、未婚男女社交都集中在此時進行。
(It might be true: Yuan-Hsiao Festival this year is March 3rd, Valentine's Day is Feb 14th, and Mardi Gra is Feb 20th.)
同時，又因為燈諧音「丁」，張燈本身又有祈子嗣之意涵。
In Taipei, we have yearly lantern demonstration.  You can watch the major lantern here.  If you watch it carefully, you can see a Farris wheel, Taipei 101, and a circling train.  If you think it is not modern enough, how about this lantern?  The major producer of this Gundam lantern, bean20, spent two and half months building the lantern with the help of 11 people.
People also go to the mountains to send ‘Tien-Deng.’  The origin of this tradition is Ping-Hsi, Taipei County.  In the past, ‘Tien-Deng’ is a safety signal for families.  Nowadays, it is a messenger to the deities.  If you are not satisfied in watching people sending ‘Tien-Deng’, how about sending your own ‘Tien-Deng’ on line?  Do not forget to write down your wishes in the blank area.
Although people enjoy this activity, Alhorn observed the poor dog lanterns last year (last year is ‘dog year’).  Alhorn said, ‘the life of these lanterns is shorter than the time we need to develop the film.’
原來，節慶花燈的保存期限，
比一整捲銀鹽底片的曝光時間還短。
Alanruo talked about the old tradition of carrying the paper lanterns with candles:
提蠟燭點亮的燈籠，才有燈籠燒掉，「出燈／丁」愈燒愈旺的好采頭。電池＋燈泡的組合，只是製造更多萬年環境污染而已。
‘Tien Deng’ also raises serious safety concerns.  weatherman said, ‘this activity has serious public safety problems.  I recommend that our government should make people more aware of the danger, and we can reduce unnecessary loss.  People should know that we do have regulations for this activity, and we have responsibility for our ‘Tien-Deng’ if it affects public safety, airplane navigation, environment protection, or other disasters.’
造成許多潛在的負面效應，特別是危急大眾安全。也建議政府宜加速進行宣導，減少不必要的損失，民眾也應了解目前已非無法可管，因施放天燈導致公共安全、飛航安全、環境保護或其他災害事故者，會有相關的法律責任。
While the northern Taiwanese lighted up the lanterns, the southern Taiwanese tried to use firecrackers to expel bad luck.
Yen-Shui, a small town in the plain, and one of the major harbors in Taiwan three hundreds years ago.  In 1882, many people died from a plague.  After asking the ‘Kuan-Kung’ (one of the major deities), people decided to walk the statues of the deities and set firecrackers.  The plague was controlled after the ceremony, so this activity is held every year thereafter.
If you think we use normal firecrackers, you are wrong.  The firecrackers in Yen-Shui is called wasp-firecrackers.  Local people always spend a lot of money making or buying firecrackers, and then they will set them toward the statues of the deities.  Because they have the largest and the wildest firecrackers in Taiwan, young people will wear helmets that protect the whole head and clothes that cover the whole body and walk close to the statues to feel the crazy firecrackers.  This year, they even built the longest (13 km) firecracker in the world, which is called ‘the legend of fire dragon.’  (It only took 45 mins to burn out!)
In addition to carrying a lantern and playing firecrackers,  we worship the deities.  You can hear traditional music in the ceremonies in Alanruo's blog.  She also described the ceremonies:
元宵是上元天官賜福之辰，過年過節，廟會祭祀仍然會關注到好兄弟的需要，所以也要辦普度施食賑孤。
Think this is old-style?  How about deities dancing with electronic music?  In an ancient story, the third prince (Nézhā) is a naughty boy.  In recent years, the third prince is the first deity embrace electronic music and dance.  In Siddhartha's blog, some people left messages to support this change, while some people disliked it.
About reviving traditional ceremonies, cwyuni has another idea:
我覺得有使命為平常有拜有保庇的眾神明挺身而出，策劃一系列年輕人也可以同樂的節慶活動。建議下回三太子李哪吒作壽或是媽祖她老人家出巡， 我們不妨齊聚全省各大廟宇倒數，過了午夜大啖素雞素鴨或大茂黑瓜以示慶祝，罐頭山旁邊捻一炷清香互送「永保安康」車票祈福，最後嚼兩片旺旺仙貝，張開雙臂 對天空大喊一聲「旺旺！」取代「Happy New Year!」或是「Merry Xmas!」