Europe's winter, date by date — the arrivals, light festivals, candle processions, fire festivals and carnivals of November to February, each one linked to the places already in our galleries. Tap any card to visit the scene itself.
11 November – 8 December
The season opens with arrivals — a saint by steamboat, then the first lights on the canals.
WED 11 NOV 2026 · 11:11
Cologne, Germany
At 11:11 on 11 November the Cologne carnival session opens and the Dreigestirn takes the city — the season's opening bell; Cologne's street carnival gets its full entry in Chapter 5.
SAT 14 NOV 2026
Grave, North Brabant
St Nicholas arrives by steamboat from “Spain” — and in 2026 the televised national arrival docks at Grave, a town still guarded by its 1688 land gate, the Hampoort. Amsterdam holds its own arrival the next day, Sunday 15 November; the feast itself, pakjesavond, follows on 5 December.
Grave — the 2026 national arrival town
Amsterdam — its own arrival, 15 November
SAT 14 NOV 2026 · 14:00
Antwerp, Belgium
The Flemish intrede: Sinterklaas steps off the steamboat at the Steenplein pontoon beside Het Steen, processes to the Grote Markt and addresses the city from the Town Hall balcony.
THU 26 NOV 2026 – SUN 17 JAN 2027
Edition 15 lights a new canal route with around twenty light artworks, nightly 16:30–23:00. See the full entry below ↓
SAT 28 NOV 2026 – THU 7 JAN 2027
Zagreb, Croatia
A citywide Advent of some twenty-five market locations and an ice park — three times voted Europe's best Christmas market.
SAT 5 – TUE 8 DEC 2026
Lyon, France
Four nights of large-scale light art and projection across the city, rooted in the 1852 candle tradition — on 8 December the windows of Lyon still fill with lumignons. Above it all, the basilica of Notre-Dame de Fourvière stands floodlit over the city — the festival's spiritual home.
26 November – 24 December
Advent deepens: light festivals in full glow, and candles against the darkest week of the year. Through it all, the Christmas Markets journey runs as the season's flagship.
SAT 14 NOV 2026 – SUN 3 JAN 2027
Edinburgh, Scotland
Markets, the Big Wheel and the ice rink spread across East Princes Street Gardens and George Street. The market itself fills Princes Street Gardens at night.
Princes Street Gardens Christmas marketEdinburgh
Edinburgh CastleEdinburgh
Victoria StreetEdinburgh
Scott MonumentEdinburgh
Ross FountainEdinburgh
Balmoral Hotel clock towerEdinburgh
Edinburgh is one of forty-five stops on our Christmas Markets of Europe journey — the season’s flagship ride.
THU 26 NOV 2026 – SUN 17 JAN 2027
Amsterdam, Netherlands
Around twenty light artworks on a new canal route, lit nightly 16:30–23:00 (21:00 on New Year's Eve). The festival's water is the canal belt in our Dutch gallery — the Prinsengracht and the Magere Brug over the Amstel.
SUN 13 DEC 2026
Stockholm & Gothenburg, Sweden
Candle-crowned Lucia processions and concerts in churches, schools and squares — light carried through the darkest week of the year. Skansen, where Stockholm's great Lucia celebrations are held, crowns the Djurgården hill, and the processions thread the old-town streets across the water.
Stockholm
SkansenStockholm
City HallStockholm
Royal PalaceStockholm
German ChurchStockholm
VästerlånggatanStockholm
Gothenburg
25 December – 1 January
The turn of the year — torches through Edinburgh's Old Town, waltzes in Vienna, and fireworks over Funchal Bay.
TUE 29 DEC 2026 – FRI 1 JAN 2027
Edinburgh, Scotland
On Tuesday 29 December at 18:30, thousands of torchbearers led by pipes, drums and the Up Helly Aa Jarl Squad march from the Meadows through the Old Town — the Royal Mile scenes below are the procession's own route. The Street Party follows on Hogmanay itself, 31 December.
THU 31 DEC 2026 · 14:00–02:00
Vienna, Austria
A free open-air party trail across eight locations in the Innere Stadt: waltz lessons on the Graben, and at midnight the Pummerin bell of St Stephen's and the Blue Danube waltz. The trail map — Rathausplatz, Stephansplatz, the Graben — is the core of our Vienna gallery.
THU 31 DEC 2026 · 23:59–00:15
Funchal, Madeira, Portugal
One of the world's great New Year displays: around eight minutes fired simultaneously from some fifty-eight points around the bay's natural amphitheatre. The 2006 edition held the Guinness world record.
5 – 26 January
Kings, crosses and fire: Epiphany opens January, and the north answers with snow and flame.
EVENING OF TUE 5 JAN 2027
Across Spain
On the evening of 5 January the Three Kings parade through every Spanish city, throwing sweets to the crowds — Madrid's is the televised grand parade, Barcelona's Kings arrive by sea, and Seville's winds past the Giralda.
Madrid
Barcelona
Seville
The oldest Cabalgata of all is Alcoy’s — documented in 1866 and continuous since 1885, its pages climbing ladders to deliver gifts to balconies. A date to keep.
WED 6 JAN 2027 · MORNING
Venice, Italy
Some fifty veteran rowers of the Bucintoro club race their mascarete down the Grand Canal dressed as the Befana witch, finishing under a giant stocking hung from the Rialto Bridge — and the first card below is the finish line itself, the Grand Canal from the Rialto.
WED 6 JAN 2027
Piraeus & Athens, Greece
Across Greece a priest casts a cross into the sea and swimmers dive to retrieve it for a year's blessing. The state ceremony is held at Piraeus — and our Greek gallery holds both of Piraeus's harbours.
Piraeus
Athens
MON 18 – SUN 24 JAN 2027
Grindelwald, Switzerland
International teams carve monumental sculptures from three-metre snow blocks in the village beneath the Eiger; the finished works are illuminated on the closing evenings. The 2027 theme is “Animal Worlds”.
WED 20 JAN 2027
San Sebastián, Spain
Twenty-four hours of drumming: some 150 companies in Napoleonic-soldier and cook uniforms march to Sarriegui's marches, opened at midnight by the flag-raising in the Plaza de la Constitución. Our gallery holds the city's other face — La Concha Bay.
SAT 23 JAN 2027
Eighteen days of masks, street shows and balls across the campi and the Grand Canal begin. See the full entry below ↓
TUE 26 JAN 2027
Lerwick, Shetland, Scotland
Europe's largest fire festival: around nine hundred guizers carry torches through Lerwick's dark harbour streets and burn a full-size Viking galley to close Yule.
The fire arc's true climax — a date to keep, told here in words alone.
23 January – 28 February
Carnival takes the continent — masks in Venice, giants in Viareggio, oranges in Binche and flowers in Nice.
SAT 23 JAN – TUE 9 FEB 2027
Venice, Italy
Eighteen days of masks, street shows and balls, ending on Shrove Tuesday — the Grand Canal, St Mark's and the Doge's Palace below are its stage set.
30 JAN, 4, 7, 9, 14 & 20 FEB 2027
Viareggio, Italy
Giant satirical papier-mâché floats parade the seafront promenade — six parades, running uniquely past Shrove Tuesday to a closing parade with fireworks on 20 February.
A date to keep, told here in words alone.
THU 4 – TUE 9 FEB 2027
Cologne, Germany
Weiberfastnacht on 4 February hands the city to the Dreigestirn, and the Rose Monday parade on 8 February — Germany's largest — rolls past the cathedral and the Hohenzollern Bridge.
THU 4 – SUN 14 FEB 2027
Cádiz, Spain
Spain's wittiest carnival: weeks of satirical singing-group competition at the Gran Teatro Falla (from 8 January; Grand Final Friday 5 February) spilling into ten days of street carnival through the old town.
THU 4 – WED 10 FEB 2027
Sitges, Spain
Catalonia's most exuberant carnival: the King arrives on Dijous Gras, and two great night parades — the Rua de la Disbauxa (Sunday 7 February) and the Rua de l'Extermini (Shrove Tuesday) — fill the seafront streets below the church of Sant Bartomeu i Santa Tecla, on its point above the seafront.
SUN 7 – TUE 9 FEB 2027
Binche, Belgium
UNESCO-listed: on Mardi Gras up to a thousand Gilles in wax masks and ostrich-feather hats dance from dawn in the square below the belfry, throwing oranges to the crowd.
TUE 9 – SUN 28 FEB 2027
Nice, France
France's biggest carnival sets its own calendar: day and illuminated night corsos at Place Masséna, and the Batailles de Fleurs — the flower battles of 17, 20, 24 and 28 February — along the Promenade des Anglais — the flower-battle route itself.
The flagship ride — forty-nine scenes by rail, from the Bergen Line to the Bernina Express, with Jonas and Maren at the window.
Forty-five Christmas markets in fourteen countries — and the ride ends at Santa Claus Village in Rovaniemi.
Every guided ride in one place — narrated, in motion, and not bound by gallery borders.
Every date on this page was checked against official festival and city sources on 3 November 2026. Two entries — Advent in Zagreb and Up Helly Aa in Lerwick — and one more, the Viareggio Carnival, are told in words alone: the calendar keeps their dates honestly rather than dressing them in borrowed pictures. Alcoy, home of Spain's oldest Three Kings parade, rides as a note inside the Cabalgatas entry for the same reason.
Jason D’s Vision
