Chichibu Night Festival
3 December 2026 — Lanterns glow in the winter night – happy festival in Chichibu!
The Chichibu Night Festival (Chichibu Yomatsuri) is the winter festival of Chichibu Shrine in the city of Chichibu, Saitama Prefecture, Japan. Its main day is 3 December, with the float procession in the evening, and preparations and some events begin the day before. It is regarded as one of Japan’s three great float festivals and belongs to the tradition of decorated float processions inscribed by UNESCO in 2016 as Yama, Hoko, Yatai (float festivals in Japan). The large floats are decorated with many lanterns and pulled through the streets to the sound of drums and flutes. In the evening, winter fireworks light up the sky. According to tradition, the festival is linked to the yearly meeting of a mountain deity with a deity of Chichibu Shrine. Because the festival is sacred, our hero is a symbol: a float made of light, with no depiction of any deity. It falls in early December, when nights are long and cold and the stars especially clear.
Flying across the sky: An ethereal, bluish-silver constellation figure made of bright dots and fine lines, shaped like a tall festival float hung with many lantern-stars, gliding slowly across the night sky
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