Marking the first major event of the year, the 2026 Central Taiwan Lantern Festival — “Happy Moomin ON! Taichung” — will take place from February 15 to March 3 at Taichung Central Park. This year, the festival proudly collaborates with The Moomins, the internationally beloved IP represented by Rights and Brands Asia (RBA). During the event, dazzling aurora-inspired light installations will illuminate Central Park, creating the largest single exhibition zone of light and sound in Taiwan.

Ahead of the festival, the promotional film Chasing the Light: Where Is Moomin? invites audiences to embark on a cultural walking journey through Taichung by following a series of clues. According to the Taichung City Government’s Cultural Affairs Bureau, the film weaves together key cultural venues—including Taichung Railway Station, Taichung Green Museumbrary, Taichung City Seaport Art Center, and Chung Shan Hall—to portray how reading, exhibitions, and performing arts flow through the city. The journey unfolds like flipping through a storybook of Taichung, allowing viewers to experience the city’s cultural landscapes while on the move.

Centered on the concept of “clues,” Chasing the Light: Where Is Moomin? follows a Moomin mascot searching for the Moomin exhibition zone. The journey begins at Taichung Railway Station, a familiar starting point of the city, where the exploration quietly unfolds amid bustling crowds. Following the clues, the mascot arrives at the Taichung Green Museumbrary. In the soaring atrium of the art museum, large-scale artworks hang overhead, while a white, fluffy book subtly appears—serving as the first hint of the journey. The clue then extends to the children’s reading room, where the same book reappears, linking reading, imagination, and collective urban memory through children’s drawings.

Guided by the drawings, the Moomin mascot heads toward the coast to the Taichung City Seaport Art Center, where the clues are gradually deciphered among the paintings of the National Large-Scale Oil Painting Exhibition. After leaving the gallery, a performance invitation discovered beneath a bridge becomes the key to the next destination. The journey then returns to the city center: as the lights rise and the audience takes their seats at Chung Shan Hall, a jar shaped like a Moomin house appears, pointing all clues in the same direction. When night falls, the trail ultimately converges at Taichung Central Park, where the lighting of the main lantern guides audiences into the upcoming 2026 Central Taiwan Lantern Festival.

In addition, the Cultural Affairs Bureau has installed adorable Moomin standees at multiple cultural venues across the city, including five cultural centers, Taichung Literature Museum, and the Green Museumbrary, inviting citizens to visit these cultural hubs and take photos. From now until February 11, a lucky draw event is also being held on the Bureau’s Facebook fan page “Taichung Culture Scouts” (https://www.facebook.com/reel/1396629818596723). Participants simply need to take a photo with a Moomin standee at any participating venue, upload it, and leave a comment under the designated post to enter the draw. Prizes include a public art wall calendar featuring cityscapes, the desk calendar Footprints of History – Cochin Ceramics, which explores historic crafts, and cultural notebooks for capturing everyday moments—turning “Moving On” into a cultural companion to take home.

The Cultural Affairs Bureau further noted that the 2026 Central Taiwan Lantern Festival will run from February 15 to March 3 (closed on Lunar New Year’s Eve). This year’s festival is specially co-created with the classic Finnish IP The Moomins, presenting a joyful lantern festival that celebrates love and peace. The promotional film Chasing the Light: Where Is Moomin? is now available on the Taichung Culture Scouts Facebook page and on digital video walls at cultural centers across the city. The public is invited to follow the clues in the film to explore Taichung in advance, and later visit Central Park during the festival to experience the happiness of light and shadow coming together in person.