Chinese Lantern Festival returns to Franklin Square for summer 2022

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There are 37 lantern sets peppered throughout Franklin Square, from a radiant peacock to a crawling, bubble-dispensing crab and a flock of parrots.

Aside from iconic favorites like pandas and a giant dragon, all of the lanterns are new.

The biggest is the Temple of Heaven, soaring 36-foot high and weighing about five tons, modeled after the Temple of Heaven built in Beijing in the 1400s.

There's a red lantern corridor as you enter the park and a wisteria corridor that changes colors as you walk through.

Each lantern is a steel-framed, silk-covered work of art crafted by specially trained artisans from China who spent about a month handling and painting the masterpieces.

Just as in China, the Chinese lantern festival includes lots of traditional foods.

Local restaurant Sang Kee is next to the Wisteria walkway and Oishii is in the Dragon Beer Garden.

There are nightly performances with acrobats to traditional folk dancers and the extremely popular face-changer.

Tianyu Arts & Culture, Inc stages the lantern festival. It was supposed to return in May of 2020.

Historic Philadelphia, Inc worked hard to bring it back as soon as it was safe, in part to help Chinatown, a neighborhood hit particularly hard during the pandemic.

Several Chinatown restaurants are participating in the Panda promotion, offering discounts on dining and the lantern festival.

The festival is free during the day and ticketed from 6-11 p.m. nightly through Aug. 7.

Philly Chinese Lantern Festival

6th & Race Streets, Philadelphia, Pa. 19106