As its name suggests, this outdoor festival exposes Lanterns at Chiswick House & Gardens, in West London. This is a festival of light and illumination celebrating Chinese New Year 2016 and the Year of the Monkey. Is it magical? Certainly, it keeps its promises.
Children and Adults can wander with a childish mind in the Gardens and enjoy a time-stopping walk. There you can discover animal species from several continents at once … Pandas are indeed sitting next to Giraffes and Kangaroos !

These (kind of) reindeers were apparently lost in a chilly weather (but however snow-free land)…without Santa (to the kids’ great disappointment!).
You can also see tiny little ants … quite enlarged so that YOU have the impression to be the tiniest species in the world!
Even fishes compete with herons in size…
After animal and mineral life, vegetable life is well-represented with giant flowers all along the proposed walk. The darker it goes, the brighter the colours are…for our greater wonder.

After crossing an enormous Egyptian statue, we step into the Chinese World with temples, dragons and soldiers…
This Magical Lantern Festival was a pleasure to see… but the downside would be the absence of music, which we are accustomed to hear around every Chinese New Year. Sound & Light Shows are so numerous now that we may expect them too often…
Another negative aspect: there was also no movement in this festival. “The dragon didn’t move!” was the final comment from my kids. Of course, they went to London Chinatown last year and were stunned by these big dragons dancing in the street, with all the music and crowd…

But the Magical Lantern Festival is another Festival, quieter and more poetic that we enjoyed for 2 hours. We came back with lights in our eyes…That was somehow quite magical !