Santa Monica Pier

Lunar New Year Symbols to Shine in Santa Monica

Look for a mega mouse, in honor of The Year of the Rat, to shimmer at Santa Monica Pier's Ferris wheel over three auspicious evenings.

Pacific Park

What to Know

  • Jan. 24-26, 2020
  • Sundown (around 5:16 p.m.) to midnight
  • Free to see, both in person and via the Pacific Park webcam

The cheerful celebrations that swirl through the Lunar New Year?

You can call them large and in charge, both. You can say they're mondo, and even colossal. And you can claim that the festivities out-festive every other festival around.

But when the wintertime observance wants to go big, as in 9-stories-big, you'll need to head to the ocean, and then stop just before you reach it.

For Santa Monica Pier's Pacific Park is the place to be for such over-sized observations of the occasion. And things'll get mighty mousy, but in the most mega way, on Jan. 24, 25, and 26, 2020.

For that's when the Pacific Wheel, the world's only solar-powered Ferris wheel, will feature images that honor The Year of the Rat.

This sweet ratty? He'll over 90 feet tall, if you're looking for a super-sized sign of good fortune and positive signs of things to come.

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Look also for lucky hues like red and gold to dance across the Ferris wheel's vast vertical surface, and a number of "patterns and transitions" that pay perfect homage to the holiday.

When can you see all of this rat-tastic wonder play out on the Pacific Wheel? Nightly, all weekend long, from sundown to midnight.

If you can't be there in person, no need to grouse over missing the mouse: The sparkly show, which is created by 174,000 LED lights, be live on the Pacific Park webcam.

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