Op-Ed: Disney Should Totally Host an EPCOT Spring Holiday Festival

Winter, summer, fall, or spring, EPCOT always has a celebration and a festival up its sleeves to entice guests. But it’s about time the theme park expands its arsenal…

From November to Early January, EPCOT’s International Festival of the Holidays is a global celebration of Christmas, Chanukkah, and all of the other holidays celebrated at the end of the year throughout the world.

But come spring, there is another batch of holidays that are celebrated the world over that deserve recognition: Lunar New Year, Holi, Mardi Gras/Carnival, and Easter–and the 40 Days of Lent in between–as well as Passover and Ramadan.

From mid-February to early May, these springtime celebrations are observed all over the world and offer an opportunity to indulge in special food and drink as well as enrich everyone on the traditions and beliefs of their neighbors. This multicultural marathon has so much potential for a real and rich celebration.

Walt Disney Imagineering should reignite the Holiday Kitchen and set up a larger stand and food booth for Brazil, The Caribbean, India, and Greece.

Bring a Lunar New Year Celebration to Central Florida, have an international Carnival Parade around World Showcase, and mini celebrations in Brazil, the Caribbean, the France Pavilion, the Italy Pavilion, and the Germany Pavilion (and don’t forget the Pancakes in the United Kingdom Pavilion).

Fill the entire theme park with colors for Holi. At all of the Christian Nation Pavilions, recruit Disney chefs to create exclusive seafood and/or meatless options for Fridays during Lent. Allow the Morocco Pavilion to close during the daylight hours of Ramadan only to reopen after sundown for a feast that makes it rival the Mexico Pavilion in popularity.

This array of holidays also offers an opportunity for some once-a-year extra-ticketed events! Stay after hours to ring in the Lunar New Year and have a Holi-themed Glow Party.

Or start things early with a special Sunrise Breakfast on Easter Sunday as well as Orthodox Easter Sunday (normally held the following week). Oh, and it is about time Disney starts to challenge Universal Studios in the field of Mardi Gras!

Unfortunately, I will probably have to accept that none of this is likely to come to pass due to the fact that all of these holidays have deeply religious roots.

Still, I will always feel like this would be an epic event worthy of EPCOT in the spring and can be a continuously-evolving add-on to the topiaries, Garden Graze, outdoor kitchen, Garden Rocks Concert Series, and everything else in the already-established EPCOT International Flower and Garden Festival.

Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in this article are the writer’s and may not reflect the sentiment of Disney Fanatic as a whole.