Thursday, July 5, 2012

The Lantern Festival

Yesterday it was finally time for my much anticipated trip to the Lantern Festival at the Missouri Botanical Garden!

Dad was in town for some work stuff, so we started out a very toasty Sunday evening with dinner at Square One Brewery on Lafayette Square.  First things first, I tried one of their beer specials, the Taurus IPA.  It was good, but I think I liked my second one, the Park Avenue Pale Ale, a little bit better.  For apps I had a bowl of flank steak chili, as well as tastes of T's beer pretzels and Dad's Scotch egg.  Dinner was a pulled BBQ pork sandwich, and then we were off to the gardens!

We arrived a little later than we planned due to some technical difficulties (aka an unplanned nap), but we were able to see a few of the lanterns before the lights were turned on at 8pm.

My favorite lanterns - the lotus flowers

One of the porcelain dragons in front of the Climatron just before the lights came on

Fortuitously, we were standing right in front of the two big dragons at the Climatron when the gong sounded and the lights came on.  Once that happened, we just wandered about the garden taking in the sights of the silk.

The lights are coming on!

My Chinese zodiac sign 

Avalokitesvara, or Guanyin, who recognizes and relieves suffering

Qin Shi Huang, the First Emperor

On the seventh night of the seventh moon, all the magpies fly into the sky to form a bridge which allows star-crossed lovers Niulang, a shepherd, and Zhinu, a weaver, to cross the Milky Way and be together.

A nine-dragon mural, which is auspicious in Chinese culture

The Butterfly Lovers - a Twelfth Night/Romeo and Juliet of Chinese proportions 

Heaven and Earth meet in the Heavenly Temple


Jiang Tai Gong, military affairs expert, waits patiently for the fish to come to him

A modern version of the Chinese sailboat, called a "junk."  This one is made from plastic water bottles.

Back at the porcelain dragons, which together consist of more than 40,000 individual pieces of porcelain (mostly plates), all tied together.


The Lotus Flowers at night

2 comments:

  1. Did you get to see the dragons "spit fire"? (it is actually just steam). I think Patsy may have a video of it on her iPhone.
    It is an amazing display, which apparently was in the process of being constructed since February! Love, and can't wait to see you, Mom

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    1. We did see that as we were on our way out!

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