The effect picture of the Lantern Festival.

As the Mid-Autumn Festival approaches, the eagerly anticipated annual Lantern Festival at Guangzhou Cultural Park is in sight. Beloved by locals and visitors alike, the park's lantern festival has become synonymous with spectacular displays. So, what delights await attendees at this year's festival? Let's take a sneak peek.

The lantern festival will showcase 32 large and medium-sized lantern installations alongside nearly a thousand atmospheric lanterns. These lanterns, a fusion of tradition and modernity, will illuminate the park, depicting the remarkable achievements of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area cities in economic development, cultural heritage, technological innovation, and urban construction.

Moreover, the festival upholds the principle of "green, low-carbon, and energy-saving" in the materials, design, and production of lanterns. It aims to achieve a festive and harmonious lighting display while showcasing the integration of technology, ecology, and humanities in the region's development.

Throughout the festival, Guangzhou Cultural Park will also host a range of cultural activities, including a colorful lantern-making competition for primary and secondary school students, a lighting ceremony, exhibitions, performances, lantern riddles, and traditional folk art performances.

The tradition of lantern festivals at Guangzhou Cultural Park dates back to the mid-1950s. In the autumn of 1956, the first lantern festival debuted at the park, drawing massive crowds as people flocked to admire the dazzling displays.
Interestingly, the inaugural festival was actually a Lantern Festival celebrating the Lantern Festival (Yuanxiao Festival), and it was only later in the same year that the Mid-Autumn Lantern Festival was introduced. For four years, the park hosted two lantern festivals annually – one during the Lantern Festival and another during the Mid-Autumn Festival – until 1960, when it settled into the current format of an annual Mid-Autumn Lantern Festival.

In 1958, Guangzhou Cultural Park invited lanterns from other provinces to participate in the festival. By 1961, its Mid-Autumn Lantern Festival boasted nearly a thousand lanterns from major regions across China, including Beijing, Shanghai, Fujian, and Zhejiang, in addition to local lanterns from Guangzhou and other parts of Guangdong Province.

Over the decades, the lanterns of Guangzhou Cultural Park have continued to shine brightly, with master artisans from various fields contributing countless classic works. As times change, so do the lanterns, evolving to become even more vibrant, intricate, and technologically advanced. Today, the lanterns at the park are renowned for their brilliant colors, exquisite craftsmanship, and harmonious blend of Sichuan and Foshan lantern-making techniques, offering a sensory feast of color, light, sound, and movement.