From Friday, visitors to the Budapest Zoo will be able to sample Chinese flavours on three consecutive evenings, while on Sunday families will be invited to explore the world of bears during a daytime programme, the zoo said in a statement on Wednesday.
Chinese gastronomy evenings will be held on 30–31 January and on 1 February in connection with the World of Animals Chinese Lantern Festival, which has been running since mid-October and remains open until 22 February. The lantern festival, featuring spectacular illuminated artworks depicting animals from around the world, is open three evenings a week on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays between 5pm and 9pm.
During the three special evenings, eight gastronomic stations will operate across the zoo between 5pm and 9pm, offering a range of Chinese dishes including dumplings, grilled snacks, sugar-coated fruit skewers, desserts, pancakes and Chinese-style mulled wine. Visitors will also be able to see a closed-system, artificial intelligence-powered Chinese cooking robot, which prepares dishes autonomously once the ingredients are loaded.
In addition, Friday evening will feature further Chinese cultural programmes, ranging from lion dances and traditional instrumental music to Sichuan-style bian lian, the traditional face-changing performance.
On 1 February, during normal opening hours, the zoo will host its popular Mackóvasárnap, or Bear Sunday, programme for children and families. The event is linked to traditional weather folklore associated with Candlemas, according to which a hibernating bear emerges from its den to predict the length of winter based on whether it sees its shadow. Although the symbolic day falls on Monday this year, organizers decided to hold the programmes on Sunday to allow more families to attend.
Four different animal experience programmes will be available during Bear Sunday. The two brown bears, Hargita and Csángó, will have a public feeding at 11:30am. As the zoo’s brown bears do not hibernate, they can be observed every day, including during the event. Further programmes will take place at the coatis, the red pandas, and there will also be a sea lion training session.
Children and families are also invited to take part in a playful bear adventure. Starting from the Main Gate Square, participants can follow a multi-stop route using an adventure sheet to visit bear-related locations around the zoo and learn more about their lives.
Most Bear Sunday activities will be hosted inside the Great Rock, in the Magic Mountain. Programmes there include a storybook-style bear guide, creative crafts in the Bear Workshop, and an introduction to Nyali, the kinkajou, also known as the honey bear. In the Darwin Lab, zoo experts will give educational talks on topics such as bears currently found in Hungary and the relationship between bears and honey.
All Bear Sunday programmes can be visited with standard zoo tickets and passes, the statement said.
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