People fire millions of fireworks at themselves as part of this festival in Taiwan, and it’s the ultimate YOLO moment
We’re immediately adding this Taiwanese Yanshui Beehive Festival to our bucket list because YOLO, and like, this festival might be the last thing you ever do. It basically consists of a bunch of people gathering and setting off fireworks at one another. NBD, right?
Here’s the deal: As party of a religious festival, on the 14th and 15th days of the Lunar year (mid-February) everybody hacks together some kind of protective spacesuit situation and walks around waiting for “beehives” of fireworks to be set off all around them. This sounds like both the most fun and the most terrifying ceremony we’ve ever heard of. We feel like if you’ve already done the running of the bulls, this is exactly the thrill-seeking yearly tradition you’ve been looking for to fill that ‘”how do I almost die but laugh while doing it next?” void in your life.
The festival takes place in the Yanshui district of Tainan, in southwest Taiwan, and it looks DOPE.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t8i4E01FReg?feature=oembed
The festival is meant to honor a martial god, Guan Gong, who once saved the city from plague.
"Disease ravaged the townsfolk for two decades, until they invoked the help of the god Guan Gong by setting off thousands of fireworks . . . a local shaman summoned Guan Gong, also known as the martial god, to put an end to the suffering . . . In the end . . . sulfur in the fireworks killed the bacteria and the loud noise scared away the rats that carried the plague."
This festival not only has a great story behind it, but also sounds like a lot of fun. We’re definitely adding Taiwan to our list of places to visit for next year’s festival.