Lantern Festival 2026

The Lantern Festival is held on the final day of the Chinese Spring Festival, taking place in Yokohama’s Chukagai Chinatown at the Ma Zhu Miao, Shrine to the Goddess of the Sea, known as Masobyo in Japanese.

What happens?

There will be a display of paper lanterns on which people’s hopes and dreams for the year ahead will be written and performances of lion dances.

History

The Lantern Festival has a variety of origin myths and a variety of customs depending on where it is held — in Hong Kong, apparently, it has been commercialized as something like Valentine’s day — but wherever it is, it marks the end of the Spring Festival. For more about the Hong Kong festival, see our event post on the Spring Lantern Festival on our sister site Hong Kong Cheapo.