Guides · Tue 27 Oct 2026
Taiwan Lantern Festival 2027 in Miaoli, and the lantern season around it
The national Taiwan Lantern Festival runs in Miaoli County from Saturday 20 February to Sunday 7 March 2027, opening on Lantern Festival night itself. Around it sits a whole season: Taipei and New Taipei city festivals, the Pingxi sky lantern releases, Yanshui's beehive fireworks and Miaoli's own Bombing Dragon, each with its own dates and its own level of certainty, set out plainly here.
The short answer: Taiwan's lantern season is a cluster, not a single event. The anchor is the Taiwan Lantern Festival 2027 in Miaoli, the national festival organised by the Tourism Administration and hosted by a different county each year. Miaoli County Government has announced dates of Saturday 20 February to Sunday 7 March 2027, sixteen days opening on Lantern Festival night, and those are the dates published on the festival's official national lantern competition site. One honest qualification, which this guide keeps visible: the county's own announcement describes the dates as tentatively scheduled, because the detailed programme is still being built. The other lantern events in this guide carry their own labels, and several are still expected rather than announced.
The national festival in Miaoli
The Tourism Administration chose Miaoli County to host the 2027 festival, with Chiayi taking 2026, in a selection announced by the county in November 2024. The county last hosted in 2011. The theme is slow living, drawing on the Hakka hill country along Romantic Route 3, and the festival's competition site carries the slogan of slow cities and lantern light between the mountains and the sea. The main venue is planned around the High Speed Rail Miaoli station area in Houlong Township, and the county's preliminary plan also names Zhunan and Toufen sports parks. The Tourism Administration has said the siting near high speed rail and Taiwan Railways stations is deliberate, so that most visitors arrive by train rather than by car. Entry to the lantern zones is free.
Practically, that means the natural base is the train. High speed rail services stop at Miaoli station beside the main site, and Taiwan Railways serves the coastal towns. Miaoli city itself, Taichung to the south and Hsinchu to the north are the realistic hotel bases while the programme is finalised, and the county's own folk events run in the same fortnight, so a lantern trip can take in more than the main ground.
Lantern Festival night itself
Lantern Festival Day in 2027 falls on Saturday 20 February, the fifteenth day of the first lunar month, counted from Lunar New Year's Day on Saturday 6 February. It closes the New Year season. It is worth knowing that Lantern Festival is not a public holiday in Taiwan, so the opening night crowds in Miaoli are weekend crowds on top of festival crowds. Expect the first night and the closing weekend, 6 and 7 March, to be the busiest of the run, and the weekday evenings in between to be the calmest way to see the same lanterns.
Pingxi: the sky lantern releases
The Pingxi Sky Lantern Festival in New Taipei's mountain district is the season's other famous night: mass releases in which hundreds of paper lanterns, each carrying written wishes, rise together in waves. Our calendar carries two expected nights for 2027, and the word expected matters. The Pingxi night is expected on Sunday 14 February at Pingxi Junior High School, and the finale is expected on Lantern Festival night, Saturday 20 February, at Shifen Sky Lantern Square. New Taipei City had not confirmed the 2027 programme when we checked on 27 October 2026.
What is firm is the pattern, because the city's 2026 edition is documented by the National Immigration Agency's news network from the city's own announcement. In 2026 the two nights were Friday 27 February at Pingxi Junior High School and Tuesday 3 March, Lantern Festival day, at Shifen. Each venue ran nine waves of releases, 100 lanterns at a time at Pingxi and 150 at Shifen, and free release vouchers were handed out at the venue service counters from 10.30 in the morning on the day, with online reservations running alongside. The city normally confirms dates and the timetable about a month ahead. Plan for road closures, shuttle buses and a very crowded Pingxi rail line on either night, and treat the 2027 dates as a pattern to hold lightly until the city publishes.
Taipei and New Taipei: the city festivals
Taipei runs its own festival in the same weeks. The Taipei Lantern Festival 2027 is carried as expected, Wednesday 24 February to Sunday 14 March, across two zones, the Ximending shopping district and the Yuanshan Park area of Taipei Expo Park. Those dates and venues mirror the city's official 2026 listing on Taipei Travel, which ran 25 February to 15 March 2026 with themed installations, international partner lanterns and competition entries. The 2027 edition had not been announced when we checked, so the shape is reliable and the dates are not yet the city's.
The New Taipei Lantern Festival 2027 is likewise expected, Friday 19 February to Sunday 7 March at New Taipei Metropolitan Park in Sanchong, following its 2026 run of 20 February to 8 March. It is listed in the Tourism Administration's biennial calendar of major events. If you are based in Taipei, the practical order is simple: the city festivals are the easy weeknight option, Pingxi is the one big night out on the mountain rail line, and Miaoli is the weekend trip.
The loud end of the season: Yanshui and the Bombing Dragon
Two lantern season traditions are festivals of noise rather than light. The Yanshui Beehive Fireworks Festival in Tainan, organised by Yanshui Wumiao Temple for the god Guandi, fires walls of bottle rockets, the beehive castles, horizontally into the streets as palanquins pass on the fourteenth and fifteenth days of the first lunar month. In 2027 those days are Friday 19 and Saturday 20 February, and the dates are expected until the temple and the district confirm the programme. Anyone joining the palanquin route needs full protective gear: a helmet, a towel around the neck, a heavy jacket and earplugs. Spectating from behind the barriers is the version most visitors should choose.
Miaoli adds its own tradition in the same fortnight. The Miaoli Bombing Dragon Festival, in which Hakka dragon teams dance through dense firecracker fire, is expected from 14 to 22 February 2027 in Miaoli city. In a year when the county also hosts the national festival, the two together make Miaoli the centre of the season, but the Bombing Dragon dates are the city's pattern, not yet a confirmed 2027 programme.
What is announced, and what is still expected
| Event | Dates | Status |
|---|---|---|
| Taiwan Lantern Festival 2027 in Miaoli | Saturday 20 February to Sunday 7 March 2027 | Announced by Miaoli County, described as tentatively scheduled in the county announcement; dates published on the official competition site |
| Taipei Lantern Festival 2027 | 24 February to 14 March 2027 | Expected, following the city's official 2026 listing |
| New Taipei Lantern Festival 2027 | 19 February to 7 March 2027 | Expected, following the 2026 edition |
| Pingxi Sky Lantern Festival, Pingxi night | Sunday 14 February 2027 | Expected, city confirmation due about a month ahead |
| Pingxi Sky Lantern Festival, Shifen finale | Saturday 20 February 2027 | Expected, on Lantern Festival night |
| Yanshui Beehive Fireworks Festival | 19 to 20 February 2027 | Expected, on the fourteenth and fifteenth lunar days |
The same fortnight holds one more Taipei anchor: the Taipei International Book Exhibition runs at the Taipei World Trade Center from 16 to 21 February 2027, in the last days of the Lunar New Year break. February in Taiwan rewards anyone who plans it as a season rather than a single night. More listings are under illumination and light festivals.
Sources: Miaoli County Government announcement of the 2027 host city decision and dates, 12 November 2024, for the Miaoli dates, theme and preliminary venues; the festival's official national lantern competition site, lantern2027.utk.com.tw, for the exhibition period of 20 February to 7 March 2027; Taipei Travel, the Taipei City Government visitor site, for the 2026 Taipei Lantern Festival dates and venues; the National Immigration Agency news network report of New Taipei City's 2026 Pingxi Sky Lantern Festival, for the 2026 Pingxi nights, wave counts and voucher arrangements; Tainan City Cultural Affairs Bureau festival pages, for the Yanshui custom and its lunar timing. Checked 27 October 2026.
More reading on the articles page, or go straight to the events calendar.