Nagasaki Lantern Festival - Japan's Largest Chinese New Year Celebration

The Nagasaki Lantern Festival began in 1994, when a modest "Spring Festival" held by the Chinese community in Shinchi Chinatown was expanded to fill the entire city. Today it is a signature winter event that celebrates the Lunar New Year with dazzling light and color across seven main venues and surrounding shopping streets in central Nagasaki. As dusk falls, more than 15,000 lanterns flicker to life. Each district—Minato Park, Hamamachi Arcade, Chuo Park, the area around Spectacles Bridge, and others—adopts its own theme color, so strolling from zone to zone feels like moving through a shifting kaleidoscope. Giant illuminated sculptures modeled on figures from Chinese mythology, zodiac animals, and auspicious symbols tower above the crowds, serving as dramatic photo spots. The festival runs roughly 15 days from late January to mid-February to coincide with Lunar New Year. In 2025 it was held from 29 January to 12 February; beginning in 2026 the schedule will stabilize at "the first Friday of February for 17 days," with opening year dates of 6–23 February. When the opening-night cannon booms and every lantern ignites at once, the square erupts in cheers. Live performances steep the city in Chinese heritage. A lavish Emperor's Parade recreates a Qing-dynasty imperial procession, while the Mazu Procession venerates the sea goddess. Dragon dances, lion dances, Sichuan "face-changing" opera, and acrobatics rotate through the program, transforming ordinary streets into a festive stage. Visitor numbers hover around one million each year. The 2024 edition set a record of roughly 1.21 million attendees, though rain and wind pared 2025 figures back to about 520,000. Lanterns glow nightly from 5 p.m. to 10 p.m., and their reflections on the rivers add a dreamy finale. Recent additions—real-time crowd maps accessible by smartphone and an IC-card-compatible "Lantern Day Pass" for public transit—make navigating the celebration easier than ever. Nagasaki's long history as a trading port with China imbued the city with a hybrid "Wa-Ka-Ran" culture blending Japanese, Chinese, and Western influences. The Lantern Festival is the most vivid expression of that past. Start at Minato Park, follow the illuminated corridors to Spectacles Bridge and Hamamachi, nibble on kakuni steamed buns or mooncakes from street stalls, and you'll find winter in Nagasaki lit by thousands of tiny suns—past and present glowing side by side.