This Christmas...

...is extra special as it happened to coincide with my Chinese lunar birthday. Well, of course I didn't know that until a few days past Christmas when my mom mentioned it casually to me. Not that it mattered, since this Christmas already was quite memorable, considering I was hundreds of miles away from home, releasing sky lanterns with my 3 galfriends in Pingxi, Taipei.

It was a small and tranquil town, a little too quiet in fact. I was a trifle disappointed that there was hardly anyone else there with the same purpose of releasing sky lanterns on Christmas night, save for a young couple and a small group of teenage girls. The last time I came was on Yuan Xiao, the 15th day of the 1st lunar month, when thousands of people gather to release their brightly-lit sky lanterns all at once. It was an incredible sight to behold. Well, I suppose Christmas eve would be more appropriate...we should have came one night earlier. But who cares, we came with a purpose, crowd or no crowd.

We got off our train, checked the return schedule and stepped out into the cold drizzling rain. A matronly woman holding an umbrella called out to us, confirming our identity, and quickly ushered us toward her home-cum-workshop.

We headed upstairs into her living room, where stacks of finished sky lanterns laid out on the floor in anticipation of the New Year eve crowd. Father, son and daughter were watching TV when we stepped in. It felt like we were intruding a cozy family evening, but we were soon busy scribbling our wishes on the lanterns amidst laughter and noisy chatter. Everything else slipped into oblivion...

Photos taken, we left the workshop in high spirits, not the least affected by the cold, damp weather. We have been assured that these lanterns are able to take off in slight rain, so no worries at all.

I couched under the lantern to light the kerosene-soaked insense paper that was clipped within. We quickly posed for the camera and hastily released each of the lanterns, as rain was starting to beat down mercilessly on us.

Four sky lanterns of four different colors representing luck, love, career and fortune, released slowly one by one into the dark, drizzling Taiwan sky, carrying our hope and excitement along with rising flame within.

They went up higher and higher, one following the other, until they were just specks of light, and disappeared into the clouds. We watched in silence, fingers crossed behind our backs that our dreams, our wishes, our hopes will reach where we want them to go.

Merry Christmas to all, and Happy Birthday to myself.