Type Chinese new year and hit generate, and the model averages every red-lantern image it has ever seen: you get a postcard. Each festival has its own customs, palette, and props. Spring Festival is the reunion dinner and red couplets; Mid-Autumn is moon-viewing and pomelo; Dragon-Boat is races and zongzi; Qingming is family graves and willow branches. The ten prompts below pin those specifics so the scene reads as the right festival, not as generic “China stock art.”
TL;DR
- Always name the festival + one real custom + its palette + one signature prop. Skip any of these and the model defaults to red lanterns.
- The templates use Midjourney v7 syntax (
--arfor aspect,--nofor negatives). For Gemini Nano Banana Pro or GPT Image 2, drop the flags and describe the canvas in a sentence instead — those models read full briefs, not comma “tag soup.” - Qingming is the trap: it is a remembrance day, so force a muted green-white palette and
--no red. - For commercial holiday ads, check your tool’s license and, for China-market campaigns, current ad-content rules for AI-generated material.
Which model these prompts target (June 2026)
These templates were tuned on Midjourney v7, which follows --no negatives far more faithfully than v6 and adds Omni Reference (--oref) for keeping the same family or couple across a campaign. If you run them elsewhere, adjust the syntax:
| Tool | Aspect control | Negatives | Note |
|---|---|---|---|
| Midjourney v7 | --ar 16:9 | --no cherry blossom | Best for cinematic, painterly festival key visuals |
| Gemini Nano Banana Pro (Gemini 3 Pro Image) | say “a cinematic 21:9 wide shot” in the brief | ”without cherry blossoms” | Reads full-sentence briefs; strongest 4K photorealism; free in the Gemini app as of June 2026 |
| GPT Image 2 (ChatGPT) | describe the frame in prose | ”no sakura, no kimono” | Top blind-vote arena score in early 2026; good text-in-image for couplet characters |
The flag-style prompts below copy straight into Midjourney. For Gemini or ChatGPT, paste the same description as a sentence and append the canvas and exclusions in plain English — Google’s own guidance recommends a Creative-Director brief over keyword soup.
What a festival prompt needs
Six rules separate “this is Mid-Autumn” from “this is generic red-lantern stock art”:
- Festival name — explicit:
Spring Festival reunion dinner, notChinese holiday. - Real custom — reunion dinner, moon-viewing, lantern-riddle, dragon-boat race. Name the action.
- Palette per festival — Spring is vermilion-gold; Qingming is muted green-white; Mid-Autumn is moonlit blue-cream.
- Signature prop — red couplets, mooncakes, zongzi, willow branches, lion-dance head. Pick one anchor.
- Setting era — modern reunion vs. period courtyard. Pick one and hold it; never mix.
- Aspect —
--ar 16:9cinematic,--ar 4:5social,--ar 9:16vertical.
Palette and prop cheat sheet
Keep this beside you so each festival reads correctly:
| Festival | Roughly when | Palette anchor | Signature prop | Avoid |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Spring Festival | Jan–Feb (lunar new year) | vermilion-gold, warm tungsten | red couplets, dumplings | washed-out cool light |
| Lantern Festival | 15th day, lunar month 1 | red-gold on dark water | floating/hung lanterns | indoor-only scenes |
| Qingming | early April | muted green-white | willow branches, white flowers | red, high saturation |
| Dragon-Boat | late May / June | river greens, summer sun | dragon boats, zongzi | winter or autumn light |
| Qixi | Aug (7th day, lunar month 7) | moonlit indigo | magpie, painted bridge | daytime |
| Mid-Autumn | Sept–Oct (15th, lunar month 8) | moonlit blue-cream | full moon, mooncakes, pomelo | flat midday sun |
| Chongyang | Oct (9th, lunar month 9) | autumn amber | maple/ginkgo leaves, chrysanthemum | summer green |
10 copy-ready prompt templates
1. Spring Festival reunion dinner
Best for: Holiday ads, brand greetings
Modern Chinese family Spring Festival reunion dinner, large round table loaded with steamed fish, dumplings and roasted duck, three generations seated together, red couplets and paper-cut window decorations on the wall behind, warm tungsten ceiling light, cozy painterly cinematic style, --ar 16:92. Lantern Festival riverside
Best for: Tourism promo, festival key visual
Lantern Festival night scene by a riverside in an old town, hundreds of red and gold paper lanterns hung along stone bridges and willow branches, families releasing floating lanterns onto the water, soft tungsten glow reflected on the river, painterly Chinese cinematic style, --ar 21:93. Dragon-Boat race scene
Best for: Sports promo, regional culture
Dragon-Boat festival race scene, three long dragon boats with carved heads and tails racing on a river, rowers in matching colored shirts, drummer at the bow, crowd lining the banks with paper fans, midday summer light with light splash, painterly action cinematic style, --ar 16:94. Mid-Autumn moon-viewing
Best for: Brand greeting card, packaging hero
Mid-Autumn moon-viewing scene, a family seated on a wooden veranda overlooking a courtyard, low table with mooncakes, pomelo, and tea, a huge full moon rising above the tile roof, soft moonlight and a single warm lantern, painterly Chinese aesthetic, --ar 4:55. Qingming family gathering
Best for: Cultural editorial, documentary feel
Qingming festival family gathering by an ancestral grave on a green hillside, family in muted contemporary clothing placing flowers and offerings, willow branches in hand, soft overcast spring light, light mist rising from the grass, painterly cinematic documentary style, --no red, --ar 16:96. Chongyang elders on a hilltop
Best for: Senior-care brands, autumn campaign
Chongyang festival scene, elders in light jackets climbing a stone path to a hilltop pavilion, autumn maple and ginkgo leaves on the ground, drinking chrysanthemum tea at a small table at the summit, soft late-afternoon light, painterly Chinese cinematic style, --ar 16:97. Qixi (7-7) lovers’ bridge
Best for: Romance theme, jewelry brand
Qixi festival night scene, a young Chinese couple in light modern clothing standing on a small painted bridge over a lily pond, paper lanterns hanging from a willow tree, single magpie silhouetted against a full moon, soft moonlight, painterly romantic cinematic style, --ar 4:58. Lantern-Riddle marketplace
Best for: Editorial feature, period drama
Lantern-Riddle marketplace scene at night, a wooden Tang-style street lined with hanging lanterns inscribed with riddles, families gathered in front of the lanterns reading and laughing, vendors selling tangyuan, warm lantern glow, painterly historical cinematic style, --ar 21:99. Lion-dance street parade
Best for: Festival opening, energetic key visual
Spring Festival lion-dance street parade scene, two performers under a single red and gold lion costume mid-jump, drummer and cymbals on the side, crowd of families holding small flags and children with red envelopes, red couplets on shop fronts, sunlit early morning, painterly energetic cinematic style, --ar 16:910. Chinese Valentine’s Day couple
Best for: Romance brand, modern guochao campaign
Modern Chinese Valentine's Day scene, a young couple in casual updated hanfu walking through a sunlit old-town alley with red lanterns and small floral stalls, holding a paper-cut greeting card, soft afternoon light, painterly modern guochao cinematic style, --ar 4:5Common mistakes
- Spamming red lanterns onto every festival. Qingming is green and muted, not red.
- Reusing the Spring Festival visual for Lantern Festival. They are two different days with different customs.
- Letting the model default to Japan. Add
--no cherry blossom, sakura, kimono(Midjourney) or “no sakura, no kimono” in a sentence for Gemini and ChatGPT. - Writing
Chinese holidayand hoping. Name the specific festival in the prompt. - Mixing a modern reunion dinner with Qing-style robes. Pick modern or period, never half-and-half.
How to push results further
- Warm holiday glow: add
warm tungsten lantern light, golden hour, slight chromatic warmth. - Mid-Autumn: anchor on
huge full moon above tile roof, soft moonlit blue-cream palette. - Lantern Festival: force
hundreds of red and gold paper lanterns reflected on water. - Qingming: mute it with
soft overcast spring light, muted green-white paletteplus--no red. - Consistent cast across a series: in Midjourney v7, lock your hero image with
--oref [image URL] --ow 100so the same family reappears in every scene; in Gemini Nano Banana Pro, paste the reference image into the chat and ask it to keep the same people. - Social posts: render vertical
--ar 9:16and reserve the top third for text overlay.
FAQ
Q: Spring Festival and Lantern Festival look the same in my outputs — fix?
A: Spring Festival = reunion dinner + red couplets + indoor warm light. Lantern Festival = outdoor + riverside + hundreds of floating or hung lanterns. Pin the setting, not just the festival name.
Q: Can I use these for commercial holiday ads?
A: The prompts themselves are fine to reuse. Confirm your AI tool’s commercial license (Midjourney’s paid plans allow commercial use; Adobe Firefly is built for it), and for China-market campaigns verify the AI-generated material complies with current advertising-content rules.
Q: My Qingming scene comes out colorful — why?
A: Qingming is a remembrance day, so the canonical palette is muted. Force muted green-white palette, soft overcast spring light and add --no red.
Q: Lion dance has weird anatomy — fix?
A: Specify two performers under a single lion costume, lion head and cloth body. Otherwise the model draws an anatomical lion mid-leap.
Q: These run great in Midjourney but look off in Gemini or ChatGPT — why?
A: The --ar and --no flags are Midjourney syntax. Gemini Nano Banana Pro and GPT Image 2 ignore them and read the prompt as a brief, so rewrite the description as full sentences and state the frame and exclusions in plain English (“a cinematic 16:9 frame, no cherry blossoms”). Google’s official Nano Banana guidance favors a Creative-Director brief over keyword lists.
Q: How do I get the lanterns to reflect on water properly?
A: Add lantern light reflected on still water, gentle ripples. If the model still flattens it, render at a higher resolution so the reflection emerges with detail.
Related articles
- Chinese Aesthetic Character Image Prompts by Dynasty
- Hanfu Character Image Prompts
- Tang Dynasty Court Aesthetic Prompts
- Chinese Ink Landscape Prompts
- Back to Prompt Library
External references
Tags: #chinese-aesthetic #festival #celebration #Image generation #Prompt