The Ohio Chinese Lantern Festival, a seasonal event also known as Dragon Lights, was utterly magical.
You might be wondering why I’m only now writing about something that has long-ago come and gone – but it’s because the lantern festival may return to Columbus someday. You never know.
Plus, the Chinese Lantern Festival moves from town to town so it’s likely someone may see this post in another city where they may have an opportunity to walk through the lantern festival. Everyone should have this experience at least once!
We visited the Chinese Lantern Festival with my parents during its first installation in Columbus over the winter holidays in 2017. We went back again with my parents and our Thai daughter Napa when the festival returned in the winter of 2018. We truly loved the experience both times! The lanterns returned again to Columbus in 2019, but that year we gave it a miss.
More recently, in 2024, there was a summer Chinese Lantern Festival installation at the Columbus Zoo and I really meant to go check it out, but life with a teenager is a little different now so we never made it.
I highly recommend the Chinese Lantern Festival for a date night, family outing or really any group that wants to go for a nighttime nature walk lit only by GORGEOUS rainbow-colored silk lanterns. Pics don’t do it justice, you have to go in person and see it for yourself.
I’m a sucker for all things colored lights and all things cultural or magical, so the Chinese Lantern Fest is a natural for me. I really liked the educational aspect of the event, with Chinese dancers, acrobats and cultural crafts on display in addition to all of the brightly colored lanterns – some as big as a car!
This is a great after-dinner activity because it’s best to walk through in the dark so the lanterns are displayed with full effect. There’s something so fun about bundling up in the winter and walking through a light display – which is another reason I’m so excited for 2024’s new Alice in Wonderland event at Garden of Lights!
If you ever have the chance to walk through a colorful light show at night, I hope you go for it. I’m all about experiences that bring out the little child inside all of us, and light shows are great at that!
