Houston, the fourth largest city in the United States, ushered the 2016 Magical Winter Lights in Houston on November 18. More than 100 lantern-making artists from Zigong, a region known as “the Lantern Town in the South Kingdom” made more than 100 different shapes of lantern groups that integrate eastern and classic western elements. During the Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year, these lanterns will bring refreshing visual experience to the public of the southern United States. This is also another successful example that Chinese traditional lanterns being introduced to the world.

The 2016 Magical Winter Lights in Houston co-organized by Magical Winter Lights LLC and Sichuan Salient Cultural Trade Group., Ltd (Salient), will be held at Greyhound of Houston from November 18, 2016 to January 8, 2017.

Last year, we are the first time to hold large lantern exhibition, which attracted 200,000 people. Regardless of high social class, general public or overseas Chinese, they all express great praise for Chinese lantern culture and acrobatics. For the local audience in the United States, during the three holidays, they can enjoy such a large and colorful lantern festival and feel great excited. “As a result, we have the enormous incentive to make the Lantern Festival as the annual event in the southern United States and make the festival become a new holiday reservation program for local people,” An Yusi , founder and president of PG, said in a interview to the Xinhuanet reporter.

Chinese lanterns are renowned overseas. The Zigong Lantern Festival enjoys the reputation of “the best lantern in China” and has been exhibited in nearly 40 countries in the world. Its superb skills and unique creative styles are gotten highly appreciated by overseas audiences. The 2015 Magical Winter Lights in Houston is the largest scale, most investment and most creative Chinese lantern festival with Chinese characteristics ever staged in the United States.

According to the introduction of An Yusi, Magical Winter Lights will relocate at Greyhound Park of Houston, only 35-minute drive from the city center. The organizers also made careful design and adjustments for the site layout and lantern groups to ensure bringing a refreshing visual experience to tourists. In addition to the last year’s reserved lantern groups such as The Temple of Heaven, Beijing Opera, the Statue of Liberty, the Eiffel Tower, Tower Bridge, the Egyptian Pyramids, Red Square and other classic lantern groups, this year’s whale channel lantern group will show the interactive projection and wave ripples on the ground while walking through it; Dinosaur Paradise open an experience museum for children; tourists in the environmental themed section can pedal electric bicycle to generate electricity for the lantern groups by themselves; there are also peony flowers, hot air balloons, giant Christmas tree and other new lantern groups. In addition, Sichuan Zigong Acrobatic Troupe that has won the international gold medal will bring a wide range of traditional acrobatic performances to the audience. Paper-cutting, Chinese calligraphy, lanterns DIY, carved chapters, micro-engravings, other traditional cultural experience zones and carnival parks will bring unexpected surprising experience to the tourists.

Turner, the mayor of Houston announced at a news briefing last month that the Magical Winter Lights will be the new sponsor of the 67th Thanksgiving Parade in Houston and become the first Chinese delegation of the 97th Christmas Tree Lighting Ceremony. This year, Magical Winter Lights will bring a new design float with the world themed element to participate in Thanksgiving Day, which will represent the characteristics of multiculturalism of Houston.