Don't miss the 2024 Central Taiwan Lantern Festival – an extravaganza featuring the largest water dragon, adorable macaron lanterns, and a dreamy pink world. Get ready for an unforgettable experience!
The annual Central Taiwan Lantern Festival is a significant event in Taichung City and one of the largest lantern festivals in Taiwan. Drawing millions of visitors each year to marvel at the lantern displays, it showcases the enthusiasm and vitality of Taichung. The 2024 Central Taiwan Lantern Festival, themed "Dragon in the Park," will take place from February 16 to February 25 at Taichung Central Park, highlighting the city's cultural creativity and festive atmosphere.
The centerpiece of this year's festival is the "Taichung Dragon Greetings," a playful pun in Taiwanese that conveys Taichung's excellence in every aspect. The main lantern is a colossal 76-meter-long water dragon, creatively designed to transform the detention pond into a breathtaking water lantern theater. The dragon moves its eyes, raises its head, moves its body, and breathes, accompanied by luminous cube performances, resembling a dragon playing with dragon balls. This groundbreaking water lantern is not only the first of its kind in Taiwan but also the world's largest water dragon, showcasing Taichung's innovation and global perspective.
The adorable macaron lanterns, known as "Macaron Dragons," take the traditional Eastern dragon form and turn it into cute figurines. Holding dragon balls and enjoying Taichung cakes, these macaron dragons feature layers of dragon scales in macaron colors, embellished with gold-colored eyebrows and dorsal fins, exuding festive joy and glamour. The lanterns can also transform into candy jars, adding practicality and fun. The city government has prepared tens of thousands of these delightful lanterns, available for collection each day starting from 4:00 PM during the festival. It's a delightful and creative lantern that allows visitors to take home sweet memories.
The lantern festival venue also features eight major themed lantern areas collaboratively created by five municipal departments. These areas cover diverse themes such as the pink world, magical styles, low-carbon lanterns, fantasy reading, and unique totems, providing visitors with a chance to appreciate various styles of lantern art. Notably, the Tourism Bureau introduces dual main lantern areas for the first time – the "Macaron Lantern" area in the pink world, where the ground is scattered with desserts, candies, and cute stuffed animals, creating a dreamy dessert kingdom. The Construction Bureau's "Dragon's Other Dimension" lantern area continues the magical style, using the four elements "metal, wood, water, and fire" as the creative theme to build four different otherworldly spaces, offering visitors a visual feast. The Agriculture Bureau's "Heart of Emerald Valley" lantern area uniquely crafts charming flower lanterns with low-carbon materials like bamboo, straw, and flowers, showcasing Taichung's agricultural characteristics and ecological aesthetics. The Education Bureau's "Little Backpacker Lantern Fun" area creates a spectacular dream-building kingdom and magical enchanted books, inviting children and adults to step into a world of fantastic reading pleasure. The Civil Affairs Bureau's "Party" lantern area, in collaboration with artist Hong Yi, uses the 29 districts as elements to draw special totems, allowing Taichung residents to find their own administrative district lanterns for photo opportunities.
The 2024 Central Taiwan Lantern Festival is a luminous feast full of surprises and creativity, allowing visitors to experience the diverse culture and happiness of Taichung City. Join us from February 16 to February 25 at Taichung Central Park to welcome the Lunar New Year with the "Taichung Dragon Greetings" and enjoy the lantern extravaganza of "Dragon in the Park."
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