WATCH: Taiwan sky shines bright as lantern festival kicks off

Families gather to make wishes ahead of the Lantern Festival which marks the end of the Chinese New Year celebrations. Hundreds of lanterns light up the sky above Taiwan.

The custom in the northern village of Pingxi dates back 100 years when lanterns were used to signal that marauding bandits had moved on.

The government started the tradition again in the 1990s to attract tourists.