Along a narrow street in the Yanshui district of Tainan, in southwest Taiwan, an oddly dressed crowd of thousands huddle together. Each wears a spacesuit-style costume cobbled together from junkyard finds: a motorcycle helmet, lowered visor, cloth wrapped around the neck, fire-retardant clothing and thick gloves. A cacophony of religious horn music rises as sedan chairs carrying statues of Guan Gong, the Chinese God of War, sway in the crowd like boats on choppy seas. The helmeted mob begins to hop nervously. Stationed in between them are "beehives" of explosives waiting to be set on fire. Then someone does just that. What starts with splutters of sparks soon erupts into a roar of flaming projectiles that hurtle directly into the crowd, or screech overhead. Welcome to the Yanshui Beehive Fireworks Festival, an annual religious tradition held on the 14th and 15th day of Lunar New Year in Tainan City, Taiwan.
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