--FILE--visiteurs portant des casques obtenir pulvérisé par le feu des étincelles provenant de l'explosion de fusées bouteille pendant le Festival de fusées ruche Yanshui Distr Yanshui
--FILE--Visitors wearing helmets get sprayed by fire sparks from exploding bottle rockets during the Yanshui Beehive Rockets Festival in Yanshui District, Tainan city, Taiwan, 23 February 2013. The Yanshui Beehive Rockets Festival is one of the oldest folk festivals in Taiwan and the third largest in the world. It has been celebrated for over 180 years in the southern district of Yanshui. Its origins date back to 1885, when a cholera epidemic had gripped the district. Due to primitive medical facilities, the disease consumed thousands of victims. Locals lived in a state of fear and prayed to Guan Di, the god of war, to save them. The Beehive Rocket is a multiple launcher of bottle rockets. Thousands of bottle rockets are arranged in rows in an iron-and-wooden framework that looks like a beehive. When the contraption is ignited, the rockets shoot out rapidly in all directions. A deafening, bee-like buzzing sound fills the air. The dazzling explosives whiz and whirl across the sky and into the crowds of dancing people surrounding the beehive. To protect themselves from injuries, locals don heavy clothing, protective gloves and helmets with a full visor. Some also wear a towel around their neck to avoid a stray rocket somehow entering the helmet. Even so, people have been injured in the past. Locals believe in getting bombed by as many firecrackers as possible for good luck in the coming year. Visitors from all over the nation and even foreign tourists crowd at the Yanshui Wu temple well ahead of time, to find a good spot before the Beehive Festival starts. It begins at 6:00 pm and goes on until 5:00 am the following morning.
