Taiwan lantern festival 2018 — Top 5 most beautiful lantern festivals in Taiwan you must see

Lantern festivals in Taiwan are held annually to celebrate the New Year. Taiwanese people always hold the entertaining and exciting activities at the beginning of the year, especially the lantern festivals, the sky lantern festival, the lively and vibrant fireworks throughout the regions of Taiwan. According to the ancient myth, these light festivals have origin from the time of the Han Dynasty, a devout king who has or shows the deep religious feeling ordered all people to light their lanterns to show the respect to the Buddha, thanks to that the gods can bless everyone. If you have not taken part in any lantern festivals in Taiwan, you may not imagine its majestic level! If you just want to see the small lanterns that are reddish and arranged into straight lines, it is pity because the lantern festivals in Taiwan are held with large scales. A whole folk story or fairy characters or even landscapes will be inspired to make big lanterns. Let’s explore taiwan lantern festival 2018 season: Taiwan lantern festival 2018 dates (lantern festival Taiwan 2018 dates) and top 5 most beautiful lantern festivals in Taiwan you must see with Living Nomads below.

Every spring, in February and early March, the lantern festivals with a variety of lanterns from sophisticated, cute to big ones, from the theme of dragons, monkeys, chickens to the lanterns designed according to Picasso style. All these lanterns will be made by artisans, artists or even by young children. As a national festival, many places on this island of milk tea will be hosts of lantern festivals; however, Living Nomads will introduce the most popular and special places for you. If you plan to travel to Taiwan in spring, do not forget the typical lantern festivals that Living Nomads gives below!

Taipei Lantern Festival

It is one of the largest lantern festivals in Taiwan. This festival is held annually in Ximending – the busiest city in Taipei, extremely large.

Schedule of festivals (dates)

Lighting Ceremony: on February 24th, 2018 (Saturday); 18:00-19:30, at MRT Ximen Station.
Carnival Parade: on March 3rd, 2018 (Saturday); 17:30-21:00, in front of Taipei Fuxing primary school (near MRT Beimen Station).
Closing and awarding ceremony: on March 4th, 2018; 19:00-20:30 (Sunday) at MRT Ximen Station.
Check out the festival schedule in detail here.

Pingxi Sky Lantern Festival

When it comes to the lantern festivals, you should see the largest, most vibrant, most magnificent, most expected festival in Taiwan, which is the Pingxi Sky Lantern Festival. It is said that once upon a time an ancient village was robbed by pirates, people in the village had to hide in the high mountains. When the pirates went away on the 15th of January, a good-hearted uncle dropped his sky lantern to announce that people could safely return home. Since then, on this day, people kept the custom of dropping sky lanterns to show the peace. Hundreds of thousands of brilliant lanterns in the night were dropped into the sky with wishes, prays in this festival every year.

Schedule of festivals (date): In 2018, the festival is held only on March 2nd (Friday).

How to get there

By bus: Take MRT to Muzha Station and take bus NO.15 to Shifen, only 12 bus trips/day within a week.
By train: Take the east line to Ruifang station and transfer to Pingxi Branch Line.

Taichung Lantern Festival

Taichung is also one of the Lantern Festival venues. The 2018 lantern festival will be held at the Taichung Park & Taichung City Seaport Art Center with lanterns with the mascot theme of the year. The huge lanterns created by the artists are extremely special and worthy of admiration.

Schedule of festivals (dates): On February 24th, 2018 (Saturday) and March 11th (Sunday).
How to get there: Take HSR to Taichung or hire a car to visit some famous places such as Sunmoon Lake, Tianjin Farm. Then turn back to take part in the lantern festival.

Taiwan Lantern Festival in Chiayi

From Taichung, you should take the train about 1 hour to Chaiyi – a lantern festival venue in 2018. This year, there will be many lantern areas from lanterns on land, to underwater lanterns with all topics. People said that the theme in 2018 will be the beautiful scenery of Alishan, Taiwan National Museum architecture, and there are air lanterns applied high technology, advanced materials, and techniques.

Schedule of festivals: On March 2nd until March 11th, 2018.

Tainan Yanshui Beehive Firecrackers Festival

Held in Yanshui, Tainan, this is one of the most special festivals, with no huge lanterns or brilliant lanterns like in Pingxi, but people display beehive fireworks. The more fireworks that fall into the human body, the more unlucky things you will avoid and the more fortunate you will receive for the whole year. As you will have to stand in the middle of a fireworks forest as well as catching firecrackers, you should wear helmets, goggles, masks, raincoats, gloves, trousers and boots to protect the body when joining. It is considered as one of the three largest folk festivals in the world as well as the typical religious festival of Taiwan.

Venue: Wu Miao Temple, Yanshu, 87, Wumiao Rd., Yanshui Dist., Tainan.
Schedule of festivals (dates): from March 1st to March 2nd, 2018.
How to get there: You can depart from all places: Taipei, Taichung, Chiayi, etc. to Tainan.

In addition, if you come to Tainan, let’s spend more time on exploring this beautiful and peaceful city.

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Are you finding more top things to do in Taipei: Tours, activities, attractions and other things? Read more: Taipei travel blog — The fullest Taipei city guide for a wonderful trip to Taipei for the first-timers.