The Qinhuai Lantern Festival, known for its folksy, colorful lanterns, comes alive in a lighting ceremony at the Confucius Temple in Nanjing, Eastern China on January 17. The official lighting ceremony, for locals and visitors lucky enough to participate, will launch an online ‘lighting assistant’ for netizens to join the activities in Nanjing.
Nine Exhibition Areas reveal the Histories of Qinhuai and Nanjing
As the largest lantern festival in China, the Qinhuai Lantern Festival runs from January 17 to February 11 on the banks of the Qinhuai River in Nanjing, featuring nine exhibition areas with histories of Qinhuai and Nanjing, and traditional lantern show each night at the Lantern Paviliion, Confucius Temple. With Nanjing folk arts and shows adding to the highlights of the festival, the celebrations will extend from February 12 until March 31.
An international motif joins the folk culture as a major feature in this year’s Qinhuai Lantern Festival. Well-known Chinese media 36Kr notes that ambassadors and VIPs of 10 countries, visitors and students from abroad will participate in the lighting ceremony on January 17.
Qinhuai Lantern Festival invites the World to experience Chinese Lantern Culture
Overseas artists and light sculptors are invited to this year’s festival, to enhance the spectacle for citizens and visitors alike. Holland’s Eindhoven GLOW, New Taipei City’s TAIWAN!, Shanghai Yu Garden, the Xi’an City Wall and Yancheng Dafeng are participating, and Bailuzhou Park is hosting an entire show by Dutch light painters.
The Lantern Festival brand itself is becoming an international affair, far beyond Qinhuai in some 40 countries and regions worldwide including the United Kingdom, Germany, the United States and Canada for display and sale. Through Qinhuai lanterns, tourists can sense and touch traditional Chinese culture.
An Innovative HTML5 page inspires Interaction with Global Friends
This year’s Lantern Festival is full of technology, creativity and vitality for those lucky enough to join the celebration as well as virtual travelers invited to participate through the interactive online lighting activity.
A website for the Qinhuai Lantern Festival will present HTML5 scenes of Confucius Temple, Zhonghua Gate, Bailuzhou Park and East Zhonghua Gate, as well as data from the Lantern Festival. HTML5 imagery of the lighting ceremony will accurately render participants, and area lighting will be displayed intuitively.
There will be a live broadcast from Qinhuai Lantern Festival televising the lighting ceremony. This will facilitate the participation and interaction of netizens overseas, providing them a sense of culture and tradition, as well as a sense of science and technology from the Qinhuai Lantern Festival.
Lighting Qinhuai Lanterns and a 2020 Prayer for a Better Life
At Bailuzhou Park, festivalgoers will have the opportunity of lighting Qinhuai lanterns of various shapes and sizes, while there will also be an interactive online Qinhuai lantern lighting for global netizens. Afterwards, netizens will be able to randomly generate a 2020 good life prayer poster, or a blessing lantern for their friends.
To participate online, visit:
https://wx.yojoyworld.com/wxsignup/h5/lightShow/index.html
Qinhuai Lantern Festival, lighting ceremony:
January 17, 2020, Live broadcast from 18:00
About Qinhuai Lantern Festival
The Qinhuai Lantern Festival has a history of more than 1,700 years. It has been called “the home of Chinese folk lantern art” and “the home of Chinese folk culture and art” by the Ministry of Culture and Tourism. In the past 33 sessions, the Lantern Festival has attracted more than 120 million tourists.
Media Contact:
Qinhuai Office of Culture & Tourism
Nanjing, Jiangsu Province, China
Contact: Lin Yang
Email: yanglin@36kr.com
Website: www.36kr.com
