Lantern festival, end of Chinese New Year celebrations

Chinese New Year festival lasts whole month, and finishes with the Lantern Festival.
More about Chinese festivals you can find at http://edu.ocac.gov.tw/culture/chinese/festival/festival_e.html , I did not manage to fathom it, Chinese themselves have considerable problems with it.
I will just show you some pics from this year Lantern Festival in Hsinchu. Center of the city

As usual, considerable noise and smoke. Allstarts with sending one of these in the air:

It goes higher, in noise of firecrackers

Epic crowd and noise

Fountains are especially attractive

Fireworks leave LOTS of smoke

Sometimes looks as footbal stadium fair after the goal

In Taiwan I found some of ugliest churches I saw...this one reminded me to my favorite, St. Sulpice of Paris, France.

Let's add a bit of light, to show it in full "beauty"

Chinese New year time is interesting time if you happen to live here. But I would not suggest travelling at that time, as roads are congested, pretty much as Christmas time in the Western culture. I found, this year, even more similarities between the two, indeed. In any case, Lantern festival marks beginning of the new full working year. Not by chance it comes in the coldest part of the year,as peasants only then could have a short brak from their usual ordeal.