Asian Lantern Festival at Cleveland Zoo, with Asian Babysitting Skipper

My daughter The Dancer usually works on Sundays, but since she had off, I suggested that we go to the Asian Lantern Festival currently on at the Cleveland Metroparks Zoo, as we both wanted to check it out. A mutual friend of Mr. BTEG and the Dancer also joined us.

There were so many incredibly beautiful scenes set up, and we had a great time. Fortunately for us the weather was bearable, because we walked around the zoo twice, once during daylight, and once after the sun had set. For anybody familiar with the Cleveland Zoo, we didn't walk around the whole zoo, as a good bit of it was shut down, including the Australian Adventure section. I would have loved sharing pictures with my Aussie readers. :) Of course, we didn't have much time for extensive picture taking. We were at the zoo over three hours as it was, although we did see a show between our two walks, and also took a breather a couple of times.

I didn't take a lot of pictures with my doll, now named Mingmei. There weren't a lot of places to get her into the picture in an interactive way, since the lanterns were usually well behind fences. Also, as I said, I was with two other people, so I didn't want to take forever setting up shots. The Dancer did hold Mingmei for me while I took pictures. Here are the shots that I took. There will be more shots from the event, without Mingmei, below the fold, if you are interested. And although this event was called the Asian Lantern Festival, everything there was focused on Chinese culture and history.

In front of a parasol, which was one of several. I got a good shot of some other ones from the set-up at night, below the fold. I want to make a blog header out of this, but Google is not letting me at the moment.

A goldfish and bubbles. According to a sign, goldfish are symbols of wealth and prosperity in China.

Narcissus flowers.

A blue ball. There was also a pink one, and they both looked like giant Christmas ornament balls.

By the beautiful archway that stood at the entrance/exit of the zoo.

We did see some animals while we were there, but we didn't always stop for very long. Seeing the lanterns was our main goal. I also got a rendition of "Reindeer Are Better Than People," from Frozen, sung by the Dancer as we walked by the reindeer enclosure. She visits the zoo often with the friend who was with us, and apparently sings this every time. Anyway:

There's a log cabin style group of rooms attached to the side of the wolf enclosure. Part of this is dedicated to the memory of the sled dogs who saved the people of Nome, Alaska in 1925, by carrying life-saving diphtheria antitoxin that came from Anchorage to Nenana, Alaska, where the sled dog teams took over. Although the dog Togo actually led his dog team through the most hazardous part of the run, a lead dog from another team, Balto, ended up getting most the fame, as well as more than one movie bearing his name, possibly because that team was the one that arrived in Nome; there is controversy there, but I won't go into it.

The reason that Balto is associated with Cleveland, is because he and the other six dogs from his team ended up in poor conditions while being exhibited in Los Angeles. A Cleveland businessman was appalled at their situation, and led a fundraiser that resulted in people all over Cleveland coming up with $2000 dollars to buy the canines. They were then brought to Cleveland, received a rousing parade through the center of downtown, and lived out the remainder of their lives at the Cleveland Zoo. Balto's body was stuffed, and is still on display at the Cleveland Museum of Natural History. This web page has some good info and photos, although I have read elsewhere that the Serum Run, as it was called, may not necessarily be linked to the current annual Iditarod Sled Dog Race.

I thought this little figure would make an adorable doll. She was part of two units celebrating Chinese opera. There were three figures, and four revolving lanterns, on either side of the path. You can also see the huge difference between day and night views.

There were some cute scenes, like a whole crew of pandas, some of them moving. Several of the pandas were decorated with peonies, which is an important flower in Chinese culture.

Several little boys in a dragon parade.

Butterflies.

Patterned circles wheeling back and forth on the underneath of a bridge that crosses over the zoo.

Some parasols by night.

"Auspicious clouds."

And an enormous dragon, "swimming" through a pond. I took a few shots to try to show the dragon as a whole, and then some shots of its beautiful decoration.

There were many more lanterns set-ups, but I think these were the highlights. Despite touring the displays twice, I would probably go again, this time probably just in the dark. I might take more time with pictures, as well. If you made it all the way through this post, thank you, and I hope you enjoyed looking!