Want to enjoy the lantern displays during the Lantern Festival? Then this is the place to be — A comprehensive guide to all the 2017 lantern festivals across Taiwan

▲2017 Nantou Lantern Festival Zone 2 “Golden Rooster Gathering Treasures” (Photo / Provided by Nantou County Government)

Travel Center / Comprehensive Report

The Lantern Festival, which follows the Lunar New Year, is just around the corner. ETtoday ETToday Dongsen Travel Cloud has compiled a list of lantern festival events taking place around Taiwan, ensuring you won’t be bored or left without something to do this festive season.

▲The 2017 Taipei Lantern Festival’s “West Side Carnival Parade” kicks off on the Lantern Festival, featuring an 8-meter-tall Lin Mo Niang float (Photo / Provided by Taipei City Government)

Taipei
This year’s “Taipei Lantern Festival” is being held in the Ximending area for the first time, from February 4 to 12. The festival features 8 zones: the main lantern display area, light sculpture area, 4 landscape art zones, Universiade interactive zone, blessing lantern area, free creation zone, student creation zone, and friendship exchange zone. There are also six major themed lantern areas. Additionally, small chicken-shaped lanterns with a handle designed to resemble the North Gate — symbolizing a chick born from the North Gate — will be given out starting at 1 PM on February 4 and 5 at locations including Ximen MRT Station.

The carnival street parade on Saturday, February 11, in the evening will feature performances by a thousand people, tattooed mascots, and an 8-meter-tall “Lin Mo Niang” (Goddess Mazu).
Official Website:https://2017.lanternfestival.taipei

▲The Pingxi Sky Lantern Festival welcomes everyone to join in the fun. (Photo / Provided by New Taipei City Tourism and Travel Bureau)

New Taipei
Although there is no official lantern festival in New Taipei City this year, the Pingxi Sky Lantern Festival will take place in Pingxi. On the evening of February 11, the Lantern Festival, the event invites the Japan-Taiwan Exchange Association, Taipei Japanese School, and students from Shifen Elementary School in New Taipei City to jointly create a large lantern symbolizing cultural exchange between Taiwan and Japan. The Pingxi commercial district will also hold the “Pingxi–Jingtong One-Dragon Event,” where both areas will simultaneously release 88 sky lanterns that illuminate each other.

Official Website:https://www.facebook.com/ntctour

▲The main lantern of the Taoyuan Lantern Festival is designed around the theme of “Happiness Begins at Home (with the Rooster).” (Photo / Screenshot from the 2017 Taoyuan Lantern Festival)

Taoyuan
The 2017 Taoyuan Lantern Festival will be held from February 10 to 19 at Longtan Pond in Longtan District. The main lantern is designed around the theme of “Happiness Begins at Home (with the Rooster),” featuring a tall, majestic rooster crowing to the sky, symbolizing the arrival of the festive spirit of the Lunar New Year. In harmony with the local scenery, the lantern festival includes a lakeside main lantern show and six distinctive lantern displays, along with Hakka street parades and a water-based fireworks show, making for quite a spectacular event.

Official Website:http://www.2017lanternfestival.tycg.gov.tw

Taichung
The 2017 Central Taiwan Lantern Festival runs from February 5 to 19, split between Taichung Park and the Taichung Harbor Art Center. This year’s festival features a “dual-zone” format, with each zone showcasing a 12-meter-tall king-of-birds main lantern. The main lantern show “Phoenix Blossoms” is performed every night from 7 PM to 10 PM on the hour. With the theme “Auspicious Year, Blooming Flowers,” in addition to the main lanterns, both zones feature Q-version rooster lanterns, welcome light corridors, and water-reflected lantern artworks, all designed by sculptors, illustrators, and graphic artists.

Official Website Link:http://2017taichunglantern.com

▲This year’s Lantern Festival also offers creatively designed lanterns for the public. (Photo / Screenshot from the 2017 Central Taiwan Lantern Festival)

▲2017 Nantou Lantern Festival Main Lantern “Auspicious Roar of Spring Dawn” (Photo / Provided by Nantou County Government)

Nantou
The 2017 Nantou Lantern Festival is being held at the Nantou City 921 Earthquake Memorial Park Exhibition Center from January 21 to February 19. The main lantern of this year’s event is named “Auspicious Roar of Spring Dawn.” The festival combines an international sand sculpture art exhibition and the Nantou Dinosaur Kingdom exhibition, and features 12 major themed lantern zones. Additionally, China’s Chongqing “Tongliang Fire Dragon” performance will take place over three nights from February 9 to 11, offering quite a visual spectacle.

Official Website:http://www.rs-event.com.tw/2017NTL


▲2017 Taiwan Lantern Festival in Yunlin, Main Lantern “Phoenix Arrives in Splendor.” (Photo / Reporter Lai Wenxuan)

Yunlin
The “2017 Taiwan Lantern Festival — Auspicious Roar, Yunlin Soars” features two main lantern zones: one located from the high-speed rail Yunlin Station in Huwei Town to the Agricultural Expo Ecological Park, and the other in the Zhongshan Road area and around the Guandao Bridge in Beigang Town. The Huwei main lantern zone was illuminated on February 11, while the Beigang lantern zone opened earlier on February 7. The series of lantern festival activities conclude on February 19. The festival combines traditional cultural craftsmanship with technological creativity, integrating concepts of green energy and environmental sustainability to showcase the local cultural characteristics of Yunlin.

The 2017 Taiwan Lantern Festival is organized around three main themes: “Friendship with the Earth,” “Multiculturalism,” and “Home of Lantern Festivals,” and further features six carefully curated themed lantern zones. Among them, the main lantern in the Huwei zone, “Phoenix Arrives in Splendor,” is a 23-meter-tall phoenix soaring with its head held high, symbolizing Taiwan’s flight into a new era. The phoenix’s eyes are inlaid with more than 200 large crystals, creating a truly unique main lantern for the 2017 Taiwan Lantern Festival.

Official website:http://2017taiwanlantern.net/

▲%In 2017, the Southern Taiwan Science Park illuminated the winter nights of Tainan with a grand light festival that showcased different levels of artistic lighting. (Photo credit: 2017 Tainan Moon Harbor Light Festival)

Tainan
The Moon Harbor Light Festival in Tainan will be held from January 21 to February 28. Now in its sixth year, the event drew 600,000 visitors in each of the past two years. This year’s theme is “Ode to the Four Seasons,” featuring over 20 international art teams from France, Japan, and Taiwan who have created 50 light installations, including seven large-scale landscape highlights, four pieces by international artists, plus additional light artworks developed in collaboration with local communities and temples.

▲Photo from the 2016 Kaohsiung Lantern Festival. (Image provided by Kaohsiung City Government Tourism Bureau)

Kaohsiung
The 2017 Kaohsiung Lantern Festival and Arts Festival will take place along the Love River from January 30 to February 12, with additional lantern zones in Qishan and Gangshan. The Buddhist organization Fo Guang Shan will also host a lantern event. This year’s theme is “Lucky Rooster Standing Tall,” and a new religious lantern zone has been added to bring the vibrant atmosphere of temples to the Love River. Each night during the festival features a light show on the Love River Water Theater. There will also be the “Grand Harbor West Bay Spectacular Fireworks Show” along the breakwaters of Cijin and Sizihwan, and on February 11, the Lantern Festival will conclude with a grand parade of thousands carrying lanterns.

▲Fireworks show at Fo Guang Shan in Kaohsiung (Image from the official Facebook page of Fo Guang Shan Buddha Memorial Center)

Notably, this year Fo Guang Shan is hosting a one-month “Peaceful Lantern Buddhist Ceremony” from January 28 to February 25, under the theme “Fame Resounds to the Heavens.” The event will also feature fireworks and the first-ever nighttime “3D Light Sculpture Blessing Show,” accompanying the public in celebrating a peaceful New Year.

Official website:http://www.2017khl.com/activity.html

Pingtung
Pingtung County is holding its first Pingtung Lantern Festival this year along the Wannian River in Pingtung City from January 24 to February 12. Dozens of colorful lanterns dancing with the flowing river create a dazzling and dynamic spectacle that captivates visitors. In addition, the Qingdao Street Veterans’ Village will host the “Golden Rooster Announces Joyful Lantern Festival – 2017 Pingtung Imagery” event. The main lantern, “Golden Rooster Announcing Joy,” combines elements of ocean, coconut groves, and local Pingtung industries. There are also seven distinctive lantern displays, including the Daluoguan Stone Lion, the Mudan Incident, and the Concave Nose Immortal, all available for public viewing.

▲The “Crowing to Announce the World’s Brightness (Rooster)” lantern at the Hualien Lantern Festival was created with reference to a poem by Li Bai. (Image provided by Hualien Tourism Information Network)

Hualien
The 2017 Hualien Pacific Lantern Festival will kick off at 7:30 PM on January 21 in the Sixth Redevelopment Zone of Hualien City with the lighting of the main lantern “Phoenix Dancing Over Qilai” and a spectacular fireworks display, ushering in a 30-day festival. Now in its fifth year, the Hualien Pacific Lantern Festival is the only event in Taiwan that features both land and water lantern zones. This year, it debuts eastern Taiwan’s tallest 15-meter-tall main lantern “Phoenix Dancing Over Qilai,” Taiwan’s only outdoor open-air “Humanities Water World Light and Sound Show,” 12 large craft lanterns, and a dazzling lantern parade corridor. The Lotus Pond will feature a red-faced lucky duck water dance performance, all coming together with rich traditional New Year vibes to welcome returning locals and international visitors.