2018 Yanshui Beehive Fireworks Festival begins in Tainan

Today the world-famous Beehive Fireworks Festival in Yanshui, Tainan, got off to a cracking start, ahead of tomorrow’s Lantern Festival. Over the next two days and two nights, 200 fireworks towers will be lit in the area as the ritual sedan chair parades the area. Visitors from around the world have prepared full-body protection gear in order to enjoy standing in the middle of the storm of fireworks as they go off. A long string of firecrackers is lifted into the air by a drone, beginning the 2018 Yanshui Beehive Fireworks Festival.The ritual sedan parades through Yanshui among the participating temples. Residents got up early this morning to wait for the sedan to pass by their front doors, and enjoy the thrill of being caught in the midst of a storm of fireworks.Grey smoke wafts continuously from inside a storm of bangs. Many festival lovers come every year, clad in full protective gear.The Yanshui Beehive Fireworks Festival originated at the end of the 19th century when Yanshui was hit by a plague. The stricken locals prayed to Guan Yu to save them. The deity paraded through the streets on the night of the Lantern Festival, and the people set off fireworks along his path until the morning, after which the plague was snuffed out.