The Chinese Lantern Festival is celebrated on the first Full Moon of the Lunar Year.
The Spring Lantern Festival as it is also known, heralds the end of the Chinese New Year celebrations and in Hong Kong, this day or rather night, will be lit with hundreds of colorful lanterns which will adorn the markets, store fronts, restaurants and hotels and just about anywhere you go.
One of the main celebrations in Hong Kong which is easy for visitors to enjoy take place in Tsim Sha Tsui at the Hong Kong Cultural Centre Piazza. It is sponsored by the Hong Kong Leisure and Cultural Services Department and the displays and activities are free to the public.
There are also displays and carnivals set up throughout Hong Kong, in previous years we have seen them regularly in the New Territories and more recently at the West Kowloon Waterfront Promenade.
The "Lantern Festival" in Hong Kong actually consists of several events:
- The Lantern Displays which run for about a month
- The Lantern Carnival, which is a week full of colorful activities on and preceding the 15th day of the new lunar year
- Intangible Heritage programmes and activities such as lantern making exhibitions, workshops, etc.
One common question we get is if you can see the lanterns over the harbour. No, the lanterns during the festival are not the kind you release into the sky. The lantern festival in Hong Kong consists of lantern displays as well as cultural activities for the entire family but no sky lanterns.
Lantern Exhibition and Displays
The LCSD sets up an amazing Lantern Exhibition in the grounds of the HK Cultural Centre just steps from the Kowloon Star Ferry Pier. The exhibition is part of the Chinese New Year Celebrations and runs for about a month.
The displays are lit every evening and the public is free to roam around the beautiful displays.
This is not your typical red Chinese Lantern, the displays are quite colorful and can take just about any size, shape and form you can imagine.
Dragon lanterns are featured quite often, and particularly in the Year of the Dragon when you can expect them to be showcased front and center...
The themes vary from year to year. Auspicious Chinese symbols will make a presence, for example the Goldfish which is believed to bring abundance and prosperity... or the pomegranate fruit which with the many seeds symbolizes fertility and prolific offspring...
Goldfish Lanterns
Pomegranate Lanterns
Chinese Zodiac Animals are also a popular theme...
Year of the Ox
Year of the Monkey
The Spring Lantern Carnival 2025
Tsim Sha Tsui Events 2025
When?
Displays: January 23 - February 16, 2025
Carnival Nights: February 7 - 12, 2025
Where? The Hong Kong Cultural Centre Piazza by the Water Pools in front of the Clocktower, Tsim Sha Tsui.
How Much? Free
The Urban Lunar New Year Lantern Carnival also sponsored by the LCSD, takes place on the day of the Chinese Lantern Festival, that is, the 15th day of the new year in the Lunar calendar.
The carnival takes place in the same grounds of the Lantern Exhibition at the Hong Kong Cultural Centre Piazza and consists of a series of events and performances by different guest groups.
The performances and the groups vary from year to year and may include musical performances, kung fu, acrobatics, as well as folk song and dances...
...and of course the dragon parades...
...and the auspicious lion dances...
Also at the Carnival there are many kinds of folk craft and heritage exhibitions on topics such as lantern making, dragon or lion making, Chinese painting, paper cutting, etc.
Other Art, Craft, Cultural Exhibitions
As part of the Hong Kong Intangible Heritage Programme, there are exhibitions of Craftmanship on Lantern Making and other crafts normally over the weekend.
For more information on this year's Chinese Lantern Festival, Lantern Displays, Carnival programme, and other festival venues in the New Territories, check out the official site of the Hong Kong Leisure and and Cultural Services Department at www.lcsd.gov.hk.
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