Lantern Festival is an ancient folk culture in China. Generally refers to the large-scale lighting exhibition organized by the government during the Lantern Festival, which is often accompanied by some folk activities, which is very traditional and local. So what are the famous lantern shows in China? Which famous large-scale lantern festivals are worth visiting? Next, this article will take stock of the top ten most beautiful lantern festivals in China, including Zigong Lantern Festival, Nanjing Qinhuai Lantern Festival, Nanjing City Wall Lantern Festival, Chengdu Panda Lantern Festival, etc. Let’s take a look!
1. Zigong Lantern Festival自贡灯会
Zigong Lantern Festival has a long-standing reputation, with a history of more than 800 years. It began in the Tang and Song Dynasties, flourished in the Ming and Qing Dynasties, and flourished in the contemporary era. It is famous for its artistic characteristics of “colorful sound, light and movement” and is included in the second batch of national intangible cultural heritage. It is the most famous lantern festival in China and one of China’s most influential large-scale folk festivals launched overseas by the National Tourism Administration. It has the reputation of “the best lantern in the world”. From 1964 to the present, Zigong has held more than 30 lantern festivals. Since 1988, the Zigong Lantern Festival has been exhibited in more than 200 large and medium-sized cities and regions such as Beijing, Shanghai, Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan, and in more than 60 countries including the United States, Russia, South Korea, Japan, Thailand, Singapore, Malaysia and the Nordic region. This time, it attracted more than 200 million visitors to watch the lanterns, causing a great sensation.
Address: Zigong City, Sichuan Province
2. Qinhuai Lantern Festival秦淮灯会
The Qinhuai Lantern Festival is a popular folk activity in Nanjing. It is one of the first batch of national intangible cultural heritage. It has the reputation of “the best lantern festival in the world” and “the most colorful lanterns in the world”. It is the only lantern show, lantern fair and lantern market in China. A large-scale comprehensive lantern festival, it is also the folk lantern festival with the longest duration, the largest number of participants and the largest scale in China. The history of the Qinhuai Lantern Festival can be traced back to the Southern Dynasties. The custom of holding the traditional Lantern Festival Lantern Festival appeared in the capital Jiankang (now Nanjing). Its grand event is the highest in the country and it is the earliest lantern festival in China. Nanjing was the ancient capital of six dynasties and the city of ten dynasties. As an important folk activity, the Qinhuai Lantern Festival has always been a social and cultural space for Nanjing people to bid farewell to the old and welcome the new, pray for good luck, and be festive and lively. The Nanjing City Wall Lantern Festival is an important part of the Qinhuai Lantern Festival.
Address: Jiangsu Province
3. Chengdu Panda Lantern Festival成都熊猫灯会
The Chengdu Lantern Festival has a long history. It originated in the Western Han Dynasty, became tangible in the Eastern Han Dynasty, flourished in the Tang Dynasty, and became a festival in modern times. It has a history of more than 1,800 years. The Chengdu Lantern Festival has become an indispensable cultural feast for Chengdu citizens during the Spring Festival and a cultural business card for Chengdu’s foreign cultural exchanges. It has been included in the intangible cultural heritage of Sichuan Province and the intangible cultural heritage of Chengdu City. As a citizen of Chengdu, visiting the Chengdu International Panda Lantern Festival has become an indispensable tradition during the Chinese New Year. Laughing, admiring lanterns, tasting delicious food, and spending time with your family, this is the most popular place for leisure and entertainment during the Chinese New Year. The Chengdu International Panda Lantern Festival has been successfully held for nearly 50 times so far, and the past several panda lantern festivals held in Tazishan have spanned countless people’s memories.
Address: Jinjiang District, Chengdu City, Sichuan Province
The Cross-Strait (Kunshan) Mid-Autumn Lantern Festival is an important brand of cross-strait cultural exchanges. It is hosted by the Kunshan Municipal People’s Government, guided by the Taiwan Affairs Office of the State Council, and fully supported by the Taiwan Affairs Office of the Jiangsu Provincial People’s Government, the Chinese Cultural Association and the Taiwan-China Cross-Strait Exchange Association. During the Lantern Festival, Zhouzhuang Lantern District will rely on water towns, ancient towns, and pastoral areas, and apply traditional lanterns, digital technology, and modern light and shadow technology to enrich the immersive experience of night scenes and create “ancient water town”, “Taiwan old street”, “Fragrant Village·Qizhuang” “Three themed areas. The Huiju Plaza Lighting Area includes the Cross-Strait Love Lighting Area, the Folk Customs Lighting Area, the Fantasy Forest Lighting Area and the Kunshan Opera Lighting Area. The design of the lantern area will highlight the cultural characteristics of Kuntai and show the deep feelings of compatriots on both sides of the Taiwan Strait through folk customs.
Address: No. 43, Quanfu Road, Zhouzhuang Town, Kunshan City
5. Shanghai Yuyuan Lantern Festival上海豫园灯会
Shanghai Yuyuan Lantern Festival, a traditional Lantern Festival folk activity in Songjiang area of Shanghai, is one of the national intangible cultural heritages and one of the famous large-scale lantern festivals in China. The Yu Garden Lantern Festival covers an area of 5.3 hectares and is held every year from the first to the eighteenth day of the first lunar month in the Yu Garden Tourism City, an ancient garden with the architectural style of southern gardens of the Ming and Qing dynasties. The lantern festival takes the 13th day of the first lunar month as the lantern lighting day, which is divided into “putting out the lanterns”, “gathering the lanterns”, “walking the streets” (dancing and marching), “welcoming the lanterns”, “racing the lanterns” and “thanking the lanterns”. The day is the sunset day. During this period, “Chinese lantern” and “Martial lantern” performances were held on the street. It has become a custom for local residents to hang lanterns in their houses on Lantern Festival. There is a close connection between the zodiac culture and the Lantern Festival lantern customs. Therefore, the Yuyuan Lantern Festival uses “zodiac signs” as the annual lantern display theme and layout style.
Address: Huangpu District, Shanghai
6. Rong County Giant Buddha Cultural Lantern Festival荣县大佛文化灯会
The Rongxian Giant Buddha Cultural Lantern Festival is hosted by the Rongxian People’s Government and hosted by the County Bureau of Culture, Sports, Tourism, Radio, Television, Press and Publication, and the County Giant Buddha Cultural Tourism Co., Ltd. The lantern festival is themed “Pastoral Rongzhou·Wishful Journey” and combines “The World’s Biggest Buddha” and ” The “No. 1 Lantern in the World” integrates into one, using the form of lanterns to comprehensively display the exquisite and spectacular Buddhist grotto art, the thousand-year-old poetry and calligraphy culture, and the unique folk customs in Rong County, which will fully demonstrate the unique charm and modernity of the thousand-year-old county. A new image of Rong County. Rongxian County has a history of playing with lanterns as a festival for thousands of years. “Rongxian County Chronicles” records: “After the first lunar month, every temple will light a fire tree, and every door will light a red lantern. It is called a sky lantern, which means longevity and prosperity… “Lu You, a great poet of the Song Dynasty who once served as the county magistrate of Rong County, also recorded the grand occasion of the ancient Rong County Lantern Festival in his poems. citiao/358970.html”
Address: Dafo Temple, Rong County, Sichuan Province
7. Deyang Lantern Festival德阳灯会
Deyang Lantern Festival, as a large-scale folk cultural event in western Sichuan, has been as famous as the Zigong Lantern Festival as early as the mid-to-late 1990s, forming two major lantern festival events in western Sichuan and southern Sichuan, well-known throughout Sichuan and Bashu. “The lights are turned on during the New Year and the streets are empty” is a true portrayal of the residents of Deyang City enthusiastically watching the lanterns at that time; watching the “Deyang Lantern Festival” also became the first choice for people in western Sichuan to “welcome the New Year and celebrate the Spring Festival”. In 1996, the “Xuanzhu Dragon” lantern group broke the Guinness World Record. In 2001, it was the first “ice lantern” in southern China. The “Deyang Lantern Festival” has become a mark of the times and is engraved in the memory of the people in western Sichuan.
Address: Qilianshan Road, Jingyang District, Deyang City, Sichuan Province
8. Kaifeng Song Dynasty Lantern Festival开封大宋上元灯会
Kaifeng Song Dynasty Shangyuan Lantern Festival, known as the first lantern festival in the Central Plains, is one of the ten most beautiful lantern festivals in China. It is held as scheduled every year at Qingming Riverside Garden. During the Lantern Festival, the six major exhibition halls, namely China Pavilion, East Asia Pavilion, Southeast Asia Pavilion, European Pavilion, African Pavilion and Comprehensive Pavilion, were dazzling and brightly lit. They were full of traditional charm and trendy international style. Tens of thousands of characteristic lanterns from more than 20 countries, and a lantern show composed of millions of exquisite lanterns, recreated the grand scene of the “Sleepless City of the Song Dynasty” thousands of years ago. The row upon row of Song Dynasty buildings and various decorations with strong New Year flavor make people feel like they have traveled back to the prosperous and festive Song Dynasty markets thousands of years ago. Various styles of lanterns decorate the Qingming Riverside Garden into a colorful “world of light and shadow” that shines in the night sky.
9. Wuhan East Lake Lantern Festival武汉东湖灯会
Wuhan East Lake Lantern Festival is a Jingchu cultural tourism brand event jointly developed by East Lake Scenic Area and Wuhan Tourism Development Investment Group for many years. It has been successfully held for many consecutive years. Since the first East Lake Panda Lantern Festival became an instant success, all previous East Lake Lantern Festivals have their own characteristics and have accumulated domestic and foreign tourists. With more than 10 million visitors, Wuhan’s “First Lantern Festival in Central China” has gradually become a tourist city’s business card. The annual East Lake Lantern Festival is an event that Wuhan citizens look forward to.
Address: East Lake Tingtao Scenic Area, Wuhan, Hubei Province
10. Xi’an New Year Lantern Festival西安新春灯会
Xi’an New Year Lantern Festival is a grand event of Chinese Spring Festival folk culture, mainly distributed in five places: Datang Evernight City, Datang Furong Garden, Xi’an City Wall, Daming Palace National Heritage Park, and Yisushe Cultural Street. Among them, the Tang Dynasty Evernight City selected eight representative musical instruments of the Tang Dynasty, including the konghou, panpipes, chimes, jiegu, xun, ruan, pipa and guqin to design the “Datang Qinyin” lamp set. The lantern design of the Daming Palace National Heritage Park is based on the theme of “Blessings and Prayer for Chang’an”. It is divided into two sections: “Lights Shine on the Nine Heavens” and “Everyone Welcomes Chang’an”, which shows the customs of the Tang Dynasty in the New Year and the good wishes for Chang’an. wish. The Xi’an City Wall Lantern Festival lights up the ancient city with 100-meter-long lanterns, vividly interpreting the characteristics of Xi’an through colored light art.
