The Missouri Botanic Garden, an urban oasis of plants, trees, flowers, and biological research, staged a Chinese Lantern Festival in St. Louis.
St. Louis Hosts Chinese Lantern Festival
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An enormous, four-faced Buddha oversees the Chinese Lantern Festival at the Missouri Botanical Garden. (V. LaCapra/VOA)
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Dancers and musicians inaugurate America's first large-scale Lantern Festival. (A. Chimes/VOA)
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The festival's opening featured the dragon dance, a traditional highlight of Chinese celebrations. (A. Chimes/VOA)
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Liang Shanbo and Zhu Yingtai are the "butterfly lovers" in a thousand-year-old tragic love story often compared to Romeo and Juliet. (V. LaCapra/VOA)