Gods, fireworks and plague: Taiwan folk festival takes aim at Covid

Yanshui beehive fireworks festival was almost cancelled but has gone ahead to hopefully ward off virus

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The fuse was lit. Dozens of helmeted worshippers and adrenaline seekers stood stoic if they could, or ran from the flaming projectiles and paper shrapnel, the thousands of explosions ringing ears a block away. In the final days of the lunar new year celebrations and as part of the lantern festival, this notorious Taiwan folk event was much scaled down but no less dramatic, and in the current global climate, newly significant.

The Yanshui beehive fireworks festival was almost cancelled because of the coronavirus pandemic. But then it was revived, for the same reason.