2026 Hina Matsuri Festival

 

The Hina Matsuri Festival is known by different names like the Japanese Doll Festival. This specific festival was held at the Simpson United Methodist Church. This was my first time attending this event at this location. The church had clear architectural influences by Asian styles. When you first enter there was a room with some vendors selling goods which then their little market continued into another hallway. Then outside of the room where the dolls were displayed was a whole bunch of different examples of Japanese flower arranging.

Then you turn into the room with all of the different dolls and other Japanese cultural items.

There were many different themes of dolls. They included everything from court dolls, to historic figures, to mythical figures.

There were also other cultural items like the below wig in a traditional style.

What Japanese festival would be complete without an example of Samuri armor.

There was also a few different examples of kimonos. 

The detail in them was very beautiful.

Food

There were a few booths up stairs that had some food/snack options, but the main food was in the basement. So, there was a big problem with this. The church did have an elevator, but there was a sign on it that said use at your own risk due to on going issues with it. This automatically made the food possibly inaccessible to people with mobility issues and could be seen as not being ADA friendly due to them not keeping their elevator open while having events open to the public. This is something that you should keep in mind if you are going, and something that the church needs to fix if they are going to continue to be open to the public...and not close down due to ADA violations.

At the base of the stairs they had a try showing the different offerings. The food was not marked on the try, but they did have a sign on the by where they were serving the food.

The first thing that caught my attention was what they called the Musubi set. They had a few different ones you could pick from. The best tasting one was the edamame one.

The other one looked like they used a seaweed stamp to cut out a design.

I got one 1 of the Hello Kitty ones because I thought they were cute. Little did I know that they were just rice with no filling. I feel like that was a cheat and that they should have had something inside or the rice should have been flavored in some way. It was cute, but super disappointing in the eating. It was also dry and sucked the moisture from your mouth.

These two rice balls for $5 were only worth it if you got 2 of the edamame ones.

In the open area where you could sit and eat they were giving out free green tea. This helped with the dryness of the rice ball. I actually really liked this green tea because it didn't have the bitter taste that green tea normally has. When I asked what brand it was the servers didn't know.

The next thing I tried was the something noodles. The little cup was not on the menu, but they were selling them for $2. The noodles were really good.

They also had the noodles in abura age (tofu pockets) for $7. Each one looked like they held less then the $2 cup, so size to cost I thought these were a little high.

The SPAM musubi was priced about average. The mini ben(to) was priced high compared to how small it was. I can't tell you how it tasted since I didn't buy one due to the low value I saw with it. I would recommend skipping it.

The main event was nice. The food was hit or miss. The main event was small, but nice. They had the dolls on display along with other Japanese cultural items. There was also little booths where you could shop. They even had a tea ceremony that you could watch. I would go to this event again.

If you want to learn more about the Hina Matsuri Festival check out the below sites:

https://www.globetrottinkids.com/hina-matsuri-the-japanese-doll-festival/

https://www.jcchawaii.org/resources/hinamatsuri

https://travel.rakuten.com/contents/usa/en-us/guide/hinamatsuri/

2026 Feb. 14 Chinese/ Lunar New Year Events Review

George Washington High School 

This is one of the events that I try to get to each year. Like most years, this event was running a bit behind. Some of the tables were still setting up a half hour after the event was supposed to start. There was a mix of tables selling products, companies and banks drumming up business, food vendors, and a kids area. 

They had this group in the food area singing. I didn't catch the name of the group. I wish they would have been mictrophoned better. You could really only hear one person when they randomly stepped forward to the microphone.

Some of the many different things you could buy. They had items like clothes, toys, cultural goods, beauty products, and more. I was sad that the plushie seller wasn't there this year. First time they missed the event in at least 3 years. Some of the vendors have been doing this event as far back as I can remember.

1st Bank was one of the booths running super late. They also limited there give aways to one per family instead of 1 per person. This was something that I would notice at other tables as well. There was a massive reduction in what was being given away for free. It shows how the bad economy is impacting communities and celebrating holidays.

This back corner led to where the pay to view performance is. I have never seen the performance, so I can't give any info on it.

One of the things I found cool was one of the tables had this poster in front highlighting a historic Asian American woman. Super cool and I intend to try and learn more about her when I get the chance.

Food is also a part of a lot of New Year Festivals.

The prices were hit or miss this year. Like Latea was selling small cups for the same price that other vendors had larger cups that included Boba (Latea was charging extra for boba). So look around the festival first to make sure that you don't loose money from vendors just raising their prices.

Also another sign of the times is the main food vendor also super raised their prices from last year. 3 items last year was $12 where as this year it was $14, then the 4 items did an even bigger jump from $15 to $18. Due to both the higher prices and them taking so long to set up, we didn't get anything from them this year. The food that we did get, I will post a review of on the In My Mouth Colorado Blog.

Aurora Mall (Aurora Town Center)

The first performance of the day was U.S. Taekwondo doing a martial arts demonstration.

Guiding Mountain was also there to do a lion and dragon dance. We didn't stay for that one since it was also a Pokémon Go special day and we had to get to Park Meadows.

They had these cute balloons around their sign.

They also had a kid area with activities. 

Last year they had more then just coloring sheets. They had cool kits like a snow globe you could put together. This against shows how places were having to cut back the funds they put into events.

They were giving away some Lego sets which was cool.

This event is OK. I think there is a lot they could do to expand this event. I wish that they would add tables/vendors and have some type of market. Also there wasn't any food. They should have had some type of food offering since food is so important to celebrating most holidays. I hope in the future that they will make this event bigger instead of just being performance focused.

2026 Lunar/Chinese New Year Events in Colorado

January

31st 

The Asian Pacific Alliance of Longmont, 2-5pm, Silver Creek High School, 4901 Nelson Rd., https://www.apalconnect.org/lunar-new-year-2026/

Feburary

7th

Colorado Springs Chinese New Year Festival, 5225 N. Nevada Ave., Colorado Springs, 10am-4:30pm, https://www.cscci.org/CNYF

Picture From: https://www.cscci.org/CNYF

14th

Chinese Lunar New Year Celebration, George Washington High School, 10:30am-3:30pm, 655 S. Monaco Pkwy., https://denverchineseschool.org/cnyc.php?lang=en

Town Center at Aurora, 2-5pm, 14200 E. Alameda Ave., Aurora, https://www.towncenterataurora.com/events/lunar-new-year

15th

Lunar New Year, Presented by On Havana Street, 12-6pm, The Stampede, 2430 S. Havana St., Aurora, https://bonfireeventco.com/market/lunar-new-year-on-havana-street-festival-2/

21st

Highlands Ranch Chinese New Year Celebration, Southridge Recreation Center, 12-4pm, 4800 McArthur Ranch Rd, https://hrcaonline.org/Events/Details/lunar-new-year

Lunar New Year, Loveland Aleworks, 2pm, 118 W. 4th St., https://www.lovelandaleworks.com/new-events-1/2026/2/21/lunar-new-year-celebration

Picture From: https://www.lovelandaleworks.com/new-events-1/2026/2/21/lunar-new-year-celebration

21st-22nd

Far East Center Lunar New Year, 11-4pm, 333 S. Federal Blvd., Denver, https://www.facebook.com/events/1801429284578955

22nd

Hibachi Grill Buffet, 4pm, Lion Dance Only

28th

Lunar New Year Celebration Parker, 8am-1pm, Pace Center, 20000 Pikes Peak Ave., Free-but registration needed, https://parkerarts.org/event/lunar-new-year/

Aurora Public Library "History of the Lion Dance", 3:15pm, free-but registration needed, https://auroraco.libnet.info/aurora-public-library/event/15368166

March

1st

Lunar New Year Celebration, Not free, 3pm, 4424 Innovation Dr., Fort Collins, https://www.visitftcollins.com/event/2026-lunar-new-year-celebration/39819/?utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_term=&gad_source=1&gad_campaignid=21188735475&gbraid=0AAAAAqKz43WamtDEkdMwTQone9ohewmrQ&gclid=CjwKCAiAncvMBhBEEiwA9GU_futyp2zI5PhpuBYUcDFYSNODC7Slzs7jej6rssvpG93hrsIItcywjhoC2MQQAvD_BwE

7th

Lunar New Year Celebration: The Year of the Horse, 10am-2pm, 215 S. Tejon St., Colorado Springs https://www.visitcos.com/events/lunar-new-year-celebration-the-year-of-the-horse/

Picture From: https://www.visitcos.com/events/lunar-new-year-celebration-the-year-of-the-horse/

Top Picture From: https://www.avenidas.org/event/2025-accc-lunar-new-year-celebration-2/