Lantern Festival, Missouri Botanical Garden – Not all of the lanterns and displays at the Garden’s Lantern Festival are dragons or people. As can be seen here, the pandas also make an appearance. The Garden used one of the pandas as a teaser before the Lantern Festival opened, moving it throughout the Garden in a scavenger hunt-like game. When the Festival opened, that panda along with many of its friends found a home in an area of the garden where bamboo grows. The natural bamboo was supplemented with some lighted artificial stalks (stems(?), trunks(?)) and then many pandas moved in. The pandas (few of whom are shown here) are displayed standing, sitting, and climbing on both the natural and artificial plants. While they aren’t as large as many of the other creatures that make up the Lantern Festival, this is really one of the cuter displays (at least in my opinion) and is sure to be a favorite with many of the younger visitors.
