2024 Taiwan Lantern Festival: Pingxi, Taipei, Tainan & Other Events

February 1, 2024

Dozens of lit up sky lanterns ascending to the a black sky, with one especially big one on the left side

The Lantern Festival (2024 date: February 24) is my favorite of Taiwan’s many festivals. The annual festival includes a variety of activities in every city and county in the country, some of which last for several weeks.

The hottest activities associated with the festival include:

Pingxi Lantern Festival: In 2024, the Pingxi mass sky lantern releases will be on Feb. 17 and Feb. 24. This is the big one! (see other things that Taiwan is famous for)
Taiwan Lantern Festival (national event): In 2024, this will be hosted by Tainan city from Feb. 3 to March 10, with a 22-meter dragon lantern for the year of the dragon!
Taipei Lantern Festival and other cities: I’ll cover the exact dates for all of the regional events below. Expect lots of dragon lanterns this year!
Other Lantern Festival events like Yanshui Beehive Fireworks Festival, Bombing of Master Handan, Bombing the Dragon, Bombing of Tudi Gong, and Baiming Festival.

In this article, I’ll introduce each of the above festivals, their dates and locations in 2024, and how best to enjoy them.

When Is the Lantern Festival in Taiwan?

Some huge colorful Taiwanese lanterns in the shape of a deer jumping through hoops and Taipei 101 — Lanterns on display (note the Taipei 101!) for Lantern Festival in Taipei City

The date of the Lantern Festival is tied to the Lunar Calendar. It takes place on the 15^th day of the 1^st month of the Lunar Calendar (in other words, the 15^th day of the Lunar New Year).

You could say that the Lantern Festival is an extension of Lunar New Year celebrations (see my guide to Lunar New Year in Taiwan and what’s open or closed during the holidays).

The date of the Lantern Festival usually falls in February or early March. In 2024, the Lantern Festival date is February 24.

However, most Lantern Festivals in Taiwan takes place for several days or weeks. The Pingxi Lantern Festival takes place on the two Saturdays closest to the date. The national event and regional lantern displays take place for several weeks, but the dates are different in every city.

Small events like Yanshui Beehive Fireworks Festival, Bombing of Master Handan, Bombing the Dragon, Bombing of Tudi Gong, and Baiming Festival only take place for one day on the actual Lantern Festival.

Looking straight down at a blue and white bowl with three yuanxiao in it, with three spoons on the left side, with one in the center holding a broken open yuanxiao, with black sesame paste spilling out onto the spoon — Yuanxiao (tangyuan) are eaten on Lantern Festival

Fun fact: Locals celebrate Lantern Festival by eating yuanxiao (元宵), a kind of tangyuan, or little gooey sticky rice balls stuffed with black sesame or peanut sauce and served in a sweetened hot water. This is why the Mandarin name of the holiday is yuanxiao jie (元宵節).

Pingxi Lantern Festival

Dozens of lit up sky lanterns floating up into a dark sky, with crowds of people barely visible below — The famous Pingxi Mass Lantern Release

When people hear “lantern festival in Taiwan”, the image that first comes to mind is of dozens of illuminated lanterns floating up to sky in unison. That would be the Pingxi Sky Lantern Festival.

Pingxi is a district of New Taipei City. Travelers usually access it by riding the Pingxi Line, an 11-stop railway line which was first built by the Japanese to access coal mining towns in the area.

Today, a few towns on this train line are some of Taiwan’s most popular tourist attractions, including Shifen Old Street (where visitors set off sky lanterns on the train tracks every day of the year and walk to Shifen Waterfall), Houtong Cat Village, and Ruifang (the main city on the line, with connections to Taipei and Jiufen Old Street).

Crowds of people walking down a narrow street in Shifen with some holding sky lanterns with wishes painted on them — Crowds arriving for Pingxi Lantern Festival

The tradition of setting off sky lanterns (天燈 or tiandeng) goes back to Fujian province in China, where most of Taiwanese’ ancestors came from. In the mid-1800s, villagers in Pingxi sometimes did it to inform others that an area was free of bandits.

Later, people started writing their wishes to the gods on the lanterns before sending them up, a tradition which tourists continue today.

For the Pingxi Lantern Festival, 100-150 lanterns are released at the same time. This is done in 20-minute intervals (9 releases in total per night) from 6 to 9 PM, for a total of 900 lanterns (first night) and 1350 lanterns (second night).

A super crowded narrow street, with a large red lantern with money symbol painted on the side — Lantern Festival crowds at Shifen Old Street

Because space is limited in these tiny villages, and the event has become so popular (and crowded!), it is now spread over two different days, usually the two Saturdays closest to Lantern Festival.

Each of these two days is at a different location in Pingxi area. In recent years, Shifen and Pingxi villages usually host the events, but not on the train tracks where tourists usually set off sky lanterns throughout the year.

Rather, the events are held in a large square, school grounds, or parking lot near those villages.

Note: Many environmental groups have spoken out against sky lanterns. The lanterns eventually fall back to the ground, getting stuck in trees, releasing toxins, or even starting fires. Find out how to buy eco-friendly lanterns in my Shifen guide.

2024 Event Info

Here’s everything you need to know for attending or participating in the 2024 Pingxi Lantern Festival. You can also find more info on the official event website.

Dates and Locations

Day 1: February 17 at Pingxi Junior High School (平溪國民中學, see location), about 15 minutes’ walk from Pingxi station. Releases will be every 20 minutes from 6 to 9 PM, with 100 sky lanterns per release, for a total of 900 sky lanterns.

Day 2: February 24 at Shifen Sky Lantern Square (十分瀑布停車場, see location), which normally serves as the parking lot for Shifen Waterfall, about 20 minutes’ walk from Shifen station. Releases will be every 20 minutes from 6 to 9 PM, with 150 sky lanterns per release, for a total of 1350 sky lanterns.

Getting There

Looking at a very waterfall from the side — Shifen Waterfall

There are three main options for getting to Pingxi Lantern Festival: by train, by bus, or driving.

By train, take a local train from Taipei to Ruifang (45 minutes, swipe EasyCard). At Ruifang, change to Platform 3 and catch the Pingxi line to Shifen or Pingxi. Make sure to swipe out when you arrive. If you go this way, expect the trains and stations to be absolutely packed, with extra waiting time to get on a train.

You can search the Pingxi line times on the Taiwan trains website and read my guide to riding trains in Taiwan.

Going by bus is a better option, with the following route choices:

Bus 795 from this stop at Muzha MRT (one stop before Taipei Zoo and Maokong Gondola)
Lantern Festival shuttle buses from this stop at Taipei Zoo (I recommend this option)
Bus 846 from this stop in front of Ruifang train station
Take the lesser-known shuttle bus from Keelung train station to the event. It has much shorter lines that the buses from Muzha or Ruifang. Keelung is a 45-minute train ride from Taipei.

The normal bus riding time from Muzha/Taipei Zoo to Pingxi area is 1 hour and 15 minutes. From Ruifang to Pingxi area it is about 1 hour.

Buses will be running to the event from around 9 AM to 7 PM, and back from the event from around 9:40 AM to 11 PM.

When you arrive at the event, because the crowds are so huge, you’ll have to walk up to 20 minutes from the bus stop to the event venue. Unless you come hours before the event starts, you won’t be able to get very close to the actual spot where they release the lanterns, because it will be surrounded by thick crowds of thousands of people.

The final option is to drive to the event. However, I don’t recommend driving because the small highways to these villages will be very crowded and closed after a certain point (including for scooters). Any paid parking lots will be packed and far away from the event venue, so you may have to take a shuttle or walk very far from the parking lot the event.

How to Participate

Two women holding up a red sky lantern with a large fire inside of it and it's about to float up into the dark sky above — My wife and friends releasing a sky lantern and Pingxi Mass Lantern Release in 2009

The Pingxi Lantern Festival is free to attend and watch. Casual visitors can also buy a sky lantern and release it whenever you want around the train tracks at Pingxi or Shifen station, like on any day of the year. However, you need to be more careful than usual because the Old Streets will be very crowded all day and especially in the evening.

However, to participate in one of the Sky Lantern Mass Releases, you’ll need to show up early in the day and register. They’ll start handing out tickets at the lantern release venue at 10:30 AM – you’ll want to be there and in line before that time to have any chance of getting a ticket.

The tickets are free and they will provide the lantern. One lantern can be shared among 2 to 4 people. If you manage to score a ticket, then you can explore the area for the day and make sure to be back at that spot before the time marked on your ticket (keep in mind there will be major crowds when you come back in the evening!

I don’t suggest you go too far away from Pingxi region while you wait – for example, I wouldn’t go as far as Jiufen Old Street, because it could be very hard to come back on time due to the masses of people trying to get to Pingxi/Shifen.

Some visitors report when they arrived around the start of the event, they couldn’t get anywhere near the sky lantern release spot due to the thick crowds. The closest they could get is 100 to 200 meters away from it.

Staying Near the Event

There are very few accommodations in Shifen or Pingxi and they will likely be booked a long time in advance. In Pingxi, there’s this one and this one. Here’s one in Shifen and here’s another.

Many people have the idea of doing sightseeing in the general region before going to the Pingxi Lantern Festival. So places like Jiufen Old Street, Houtong Cat Village, and the whole Pingxi train line will be much busier than usual all day.

It may also be harder to get rooms in Jiufen or Ruifang around the festival. See my recommended guesthouses in Jiufen here.

Taiwan Lantern Festival National Event

A giant yellow and white rabbit shaped lantern with round colorful lanterns hanging on strings in front of it — Giant rabbit lantern for a past Year of the Rabbit Lantern Festival

Every year, one city in Taiwan hosts a national Lantern Festival event. This event usually features displays of beautiful lanterns in a few different locations in that city.

At the main venue, there will usually be a stage with talks, concerts, and fireworks or light and drone displays at night. There is also usually one especially massive lantern (I’m talking like several stories tall) shaped like that year’s zodiac animal.

This event is usually crowded, but not quite as bad as the Pingxi Lantern Festival because there’s more space and its spread over several weeks. Note that there are no sky lanterns at the national event – those are illegal everywhere in Taiwan except for Pingxi.

Personally, I went to this event once and it wasn’t my favorite, mainly due to the constant noise from the stage. You can see similar displays of lanterns (without the noise) in every city in Taiwan (see next section below). But the huge lantern of the zodiac animal is pretty cool!