Photo by D. MCGIRR.
A 30-foot-tall Chinese gate at the Lowry Park Zoo entrance here in Tampa acts as a red-and-gold threshold to wondrous sights: illuminated displays of giant temples, dragons, lotus flowers, even pandas in a bamboo forest.
Zoominations is the official name of the Chinese lantern festival the zoo hosts nightly Saturday through May 31, but organizers have another word handy.
“Magnificent,” zoo spokeswoman Rachel Nelson said. “It’s the first time the southeastern United States has hosted a large-scale Chinese lantern festival.”
I caught a daytime preview of the festival, which celebrates the ancient art of Chinese lantern-making, which began roughly 2,000 years ago during the Han Dynasty. The festival runs from Feb. 28 through May 31. It includes Asian cuisine and a Chinese artisan marketplace around a replica of Beijing’s Temple of Heaven. The real temple, built in 1420, is larger than China’s Forbidden City. The replica is 39 feet high and 59 feet long.
Other displays include an array of goldfish and lotus flowers, symbolizing good fortune and spiritual purity, in Lake Sharon, and a bamboo forest with playful pandas around the Jungle Carousel.
The preview was so stunning, I can’t wait to see these lanterns at night. Read more about the festival in my article for The Tampa Tribune here.