Festivals and Celebrations of Henan Province

Flower Festival October 28 to November 28

Each year in this time, the streets and alleys are full of red, yellow, purple, white chrysanthemums, making Kaifeng a sea of flower. The major flower exhibitions are in Dragon Pavilion, Iron Tower, Big Xiangguo Monastery, Baogong Shrine, and Emperor Yu Platform. The chrysanthemums exhibited have varieties of more than one hundred. During the period of Flower Festival, there are also many economic and trade activities, in order to give people a better understanding of Kaifeng.

Chrysanthemum in Kaifeng is popular as early as the Northern Song dynasty (960 to 1126 A.D.), activities such as hanging chrysanthemum lamps, opening chrysanthemum meetings, drinking chrysanthemum wine, have a history of thousands of years in Kaifeng.

Festival of Lanterns

Before or after the 15th lunar month

This traditional activity has lasted from the Song Dynasty (960C1279) for thousands of years. The exhibited sparkling designed festive lanterns, making the ancient city more luminous. Now the newly-added festive lanterns with new material absorb many modern technologies, making breakthroughs in the aspect of the color and design.

Besides, other nongovernmental activities are popular as well, such as cockfighting competition, flying kites, Dongjin emperor temple fair, playing the plate drum, etc.