Chinese Lantern Festival - Part 1

This is the third year for the Chinese Lantern Festival. I've been wanting to go every year, and last week we finally made it!

The 32 elaborate, enormous lantern installations are constructed by 64 Master Craftsmen and women in Zigong, China, and are shipped to Canada, and assmbled at Ontario Place. This year's lanterns feature animals, dinosaurs, and marine life, as well as some of the world’s architectural wonders.

The Houses of Parliament, London, England, with the huge clock tower that is affectionately known as Big Ben. The white spots are raindrops on the camera lens... we went on the rainiest night of the year I think!

And of course, you can't visit London without riding on a red Double Decker bus!

The Taj Mahal in Agra, India, was commissioned by the fifth Mughal Emporer as a tribute to his second wife in 1631. It doesn't say what happened to his first wife.

The Church of the Saviour on Spilled Blood is one of the main Orthodox Cathedrals of St Petersburg, Russia, named for Tsar Alexander II who was killed on this site in 1881.

Egypt... the Pyramids, the Temples, the Sphinx. Pharaoh Ramses would have been proud!

The Parthenon was built on the Athens Acropolis in the 5th century BC. You can see the scale of these lanterns by the silhouettes of the people at bottom right.

The Statue of Liberty was a gift from France to the USA in 1886. The 151' tall statue stands on Liberty Island, New York. Her crown represents the Seven Seas and the Seven Continents, her torch represents enlightenment, and her tablet signifies knowledge.

Incredible to think that some of these huge installations are 50' high and 300' long, and are constructed of steel wire frames with coloured silk fabric stretched over them, and lit from inside.

Next post.... some of the animal lanterns.