Celebrating Chinese Lantern Festival, Yuan Xiao Jie, at the Yuyuan Gardens in Shanghai, China.
You don't have to travel to Shanghai, China to see the sights of the annual Chinese Lantern Festival celebrations! Here are some photographs I took last night. The Yuyuan Gardens in Shanghai was transformed into a city of lights. This year's lantern festival theme was fairytales. There were silk lanterns of the Frog Prince, Ali Baba, cats and a musical orchestra made up of grasshoppers. This being the Year of the Dog, they were out in full force in all sorts of lantern themes. What a sight! The same song saying "Nao Yuan Xiao" meaning "have a joyous time on Yuan Xiao" was repeated over the loudspeakers the whole night. We probably heard it more than a hundred times! People were throwing red ribbon straps written with good wishes in Chinese characters and tied with an old Chinese coin onto a good wish tree. The higher the wishes go the better, but it wasn't easy getting the red wishes up on the branches! The overwhelming sights and sounds of celebrating Yuan Xiao, the Chinese lantern festival in China was an experience you'll want to try at least once!
Ali Baba
Cats
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Glowing Chinese lanterns
Wealth Dogs
Good Wishes
Good Wish Tree
Dog Chinese Lanterns
Fairytale Tree Lantern
Lantern Riddles
