The Moonlight Forest: Magical Lantern Art Festival at the Arboretum in Arcadia, California is a family-friendly event that begins in October and lasts until the end of the first week of January. It is a festival that mostly centers on Chinese culture and visuals, which is made clear by the arch at the entrance and the palace in the center.
The attractions of the event are divided into three themes: Nature’s Treasures, Children’s World, and Magical China.
Nature’s Treasures consists of lanterns in the shape of animals from land, air, and sea, along with huge brightly lit flowers in all colors. The over-sized crocodile was one of my favorites, but I was also a fan of the sea turtle. It was bigger than the crocodile, and semi-realistic, with limbs that moved.
The next section was Children’s World, which had cute displays that were more imagination-driven. The animals in this section are more cartoonish than the ones found in the Nature’s Treasures section. You can see panda’s on swings and odd-colored animals (such as the most majestic pink camel I have ever seen). There were even dinosaurs that moved and a tunnel devoted to animals from the sea (which caused people to stop, stare, and block me while I was trying to walk). I enjoyed this section’s fantasy elements.
Though each category was unique, the attractions housed under the Magical China theme were the greatest in number and the most extravagant in size and complexity. There was an enormous Chinese dragon whose light reflected off of the man-made pond within the arboretum’s Historic Circle. It was very popular with the people at the event.
If you decide to take a break from the splendor of the lanterns, Tianyu Arts & Culture, Inc (the company that collaborates with the Arboretum for the event) put on performances that showcased acrobats and dancers preforming traditional dances from China.
I was glad to take a few hours to walk around and enjoy the lights, and am hoping to return to an even better festival display next year.
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