The 2026 Lantern Festival Gala, one of the premier television events on China's entertainment calendar, got underway at 20:00 Beijing time on Tuesday, spotlighting the brilliance of traditional Chinese culture through a vibrant array of captivating performances.

Hosted by the China Media Group (CMG), the annual gala features a star-studded lineup and a host of variety acts, offering a cutting-edge visual and audio spectacle to viewers tuning in from around the world.

The Lantern Festival, observed on the 15th day of the first month of the Chinese lunar calendar, lands on Tuesday this year, and marks the conclusion of China's Spring Festival celebrations, which center around the Chinese New Year.

First broadcast back in 1985, the Lantern Festival Gala is again staging a whole host of entertaining variety performances including energetic songs and dances, sketch comedies, crosstalk, as well as traditional operas and magic shows, highlighting China's unique cultural charm.

Classic elements of the festival such as lantern parades, riddle solving, and making Tangyuan, a traditional ball-shaped Chinese dessert made of glutinous rice that symbolizes reunion and good fortune, will appear throughout the evening.

The event will feature a dazzling array of special effects and vibrant song and dance performances, including a spectacular display of exquisitely-crafted lanterns of various designs, mesmerizing music numbers that incorporate vocal styles from different traditional Chinese opera genres, and a selection of upbeat songs that celebrate the themes of food, happiness, family, and home.

In addition to the main performance stage in Beijing, four sub-venues have been set up across the country including Harbin, the provincial capital of Heilongjiang in northeast China known as the "ice city," the trading hub of Yiwu in east China's Zhejiang, which has been dubbed "the world's supermarket," Hefei, the provincial capital of the eastern Anhui Province which has emerged as a prime location for sci-tech innovation, and Yibin in the southwestern Sichuan Province, known for its ancient architecture and picturesque scenery along the banks of the Yangtze River.

With a history spanning over 2,000 years, the Lantern Festival is deemed an important annual occasion in China, and is a time to admire the full moon, view traditional lantern shows, and eat Tangyuan or Yuanxiao.