2017 Chinese Lantern Festival

On Saturday evening the 7th of October we took Samantha and Hailey along with friend Peyton to the Daniel Stowe Botanical Gardens for their first Chinese Lantern Festival.  We may call these “lanterns,” but make no mistake – these are not hand-held, candle-lit lamps. From humble beginnings of silk and paper, the Chinese lantern has evolved into the wondrous shapes and sizes of the Chinese Lantern Festival. Enter “The Wild,” a world of life-size (sometimes larger than life) illuminated panda bears, lions, flamingos and more fauna from the world’s seven continents. Each of the lanterns is made by masters of the craft in Zigong, China’s center of lantern heritage. Others are made of small glass medicine bottles filled with colored liquid. Arranged in the shape of dragons, peacocks, and giant pearls, they glimmer like crystal rainbows. It’s Daniel Stowe Botanical Garden’s largest exhibition to date and over 800 handmade lanterns will fill more than 12 acres.

We had a grand time.  As we usually go before Christmas for the Christmas Lights, this time around it was WAY more crowded and Hurricane Nate (more like drizzle) came through and the air was HUMID.  By the time we waded through the crowds and dealt with the humidity we were soaking wet but the displays were amazing.  Mike got lucky and found a close parking spaces as they had so many cars they had created additional lots.  So hope you enjoy the pictures as much as we enjoyed being there.

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