Auckland Lantern Festival

Auckland’s iconic Chinese New Year Lantern Festival celebrates its 10th anniversary in 2009.
Organised by Asia New Zealand Foundation in partnership with Auckland City Council, the Lantern Festival draws some 150,000 people over three nights in Auckland’s downtown Albert Park.
All the lanterns are specially commissioned in China. “We started the Lantern Festival in 2000, the Year of the Dragon, and this year – the Year of the Ox - we will have worked our way through 10 of the 12 animals of the Chinese zodiac,” says Jennifer King, culture director at Asia:NZ.
Each year, Asia:NZ also brings in performing troupes from China specially for the Lantern Festival: from dragon and lion dancers to puppetry troupes, classical musicians, drummers, acrobats, Peking Opera stilt walkers and Shaolin martial artists.
The Lantern Festival is traditionally held on the 15th day of the two-week Chinese Lunar New Year celebrations.