Chinese Lantern Festival, Part 4

A continuation of my trip to the Chinese Lantern Festival at the Missori Botanical Garden in St. Louis, MO. if interested, you can go to www.missouribotanicalgarden.org and read more about this beautiful exhibit...only here for a few more weeks.

As we roamed the gardens we came across...The Chinese Pillars

And a Cherry Blossom Tree

And Colorful Flowers

There were 8 of these lining the path

This is the Heavenly Temple. the Heavenly Temple in Beijing was constructed in 1420. it is a grand shrine to the gods where emperors would pray for a fruitful harvest.

Closer pic of the heavenly temple

The Wishing Well. throw in your pennies....and other coins....to have your wish granted.

The Flying Apsaras...these are female spirits...beautiful, youthful women proficient in the arts...dancing and playing celestial music.

The Double 7th Festival 

Chinese Double 7th Festival is held on the 7th day of the 7th lunar month ... falling in mid-summer. at night when the Milky Way is visible, you can see a bright star at the far north and south ends. They represent Cowherd and Weaver Maid who fell in love and were torn apart ... only allowed to meet once a year on the seventh day of the seventh month.

Very cool cranes in this display.

The First Emperor's Quest for Immortality

Qin Shi Huang was the first emperor of a unified China from 246 to 210 B.C.  he influenced cultural and intellectual growth and built the Great Wall of China.

In middle age he was concerned about death and spent considerable time looking for an elixir that would allow him to live forever.

Hope you are still enjoying the Lantern Festival tour....we have one more day to go. i'll try to get it out here in the next day or so.

This exhibit was one of the coolest things i have seen in a long time and i really enjoyed it. if you can, i recommend seeing it in person. it will only be here a couple more weeks...so go sooner rather than ...

Later

Chinese Lantern Festival - part II

This is a continuation of the tour of the Chinese Lantern Festival. you can visit http://www.missouribotanicalgarden.org/ and click on Lantern Festival and read all the stories about the pictures.

The dragon is a traditional symbol for the Chinese people....it symbolizes luck, nobility, bravery, strength and knowledge. 2012 is the year of the dragon.

This exhibit is called Dragon Embracing the Pillars

They actually colored the water blue...it appeared magical.

There were lotus blossoms in many of the ponds in the garden.

This exhibit is called Lotus Ponds. i loved this arbor...looks like the sun. i want this in my garden at home.

Some very tall...albeit strange...lotus flowers

And this incredible vase sitting in the middle.

The fish on the vase remind me of Deb Levy's art work on her quilts....she does fish sometimes. when you look at the pic you can see that this is sort of 3D...the design if actually set off of the vase....you can see the little pins holding it up.

Here's another huge lotus flower in a pond.

This was called Sail Boat and is really cool. it is made of thousands of recycled plastic bottles. the city of St. Louis saved them for the Chinese artists to use.

All these exhibits are so amazing. the craft ideas....the amazing workmanship....the hours of labor. just so we can visit and enjoy. i want to go see it all again.

Here is the front of the sail boat.

Hope you are enjoying my tour of the Chinese Lantern Festival. there is much more to come. stay tuned....

Later

What a birthday I had!!

My sister knows how to celebrate a birthday. she took me to the Chinese Lantern Festival at the Missouri Botanical Gardens in St. Louis.  you can go here to read all about the various exhibits...  http://www.missouribotanicalgarden.org/   just click on the Lantern Festival and see all the wonderous sights. we spent an hour and a half walking around and seeing all of it.

A group of people came and stayed and built these exhibits over several months. they are built on a steel frame with silk fabric over that. it is just awesome. you have to see it in person. i took over 70 pictures and will be sharing with you as i download them all and fix them up. they brought there own food with them and all the supplies to build.

Here are a few pieces to get you started.

As you enter the grounds, the Welcoming Dragon is there to invite you in. he is 137 feet long. you can see the size of the height by the car that is coming in. it is amazing.

These exhibits are rarely shown outside Asia....so this was a real treat to have them here in Missouri

To think these are made of steel foundations with silk stretched over it. and there is gold braid covering the seams....miles of it.

 
Even the green traffic cones are covered in silk.

This is the front of the Gardens building. This is called the Dragon Pillars Gate. go to the website and read the story behind it.

As you come into the building...this is what you see first. Warrior masks

Awesome

I was really impressed by this. this is the Porcelain Dragon. he is made of Chinese cooking utensils....tens of thousands of bowls, spoons, bottles, wine cups and more. held together by traditional hand tying techniques with string. amazing. even the boxes that he is standing on is covered in silk.

That is one long dragon tail. see those red flowers....those are silk also.

This is a close up of his head...wine cups....plates with spoons....all tied with string.

Check this out. i would have loved to watch them work constructing this.

Check out that claw. you can see the string tying here. wonder how many miles of string it took.

Here is the tail. see those colored lights...this whole display is lit up at night. that would have been a wonderful sight.

Heres the tail close up with the lights.

I have many more pics to show you....just keep checking back over the next week or so. the exhibit was awesome. each exhibit had a sign telling the story behind the exhibit. this was the coolest birthday i have spent in a while. thank you, sis.  plus the day was cloudy and breezy.....couldn't beat it.

So, to see more of the Chinese Lantern Exhibit.....come back...

Later