Each lantern was designed and built by 50 master artists from Zigong, China
Published in the July 6 – 19, 2016 issue of Morgan Hill Life
By Marty Cheek
Photo by Marty Cheek
Barb Granter, general manager of Gilroy Gardens, poses with a few of the lanterns.
Visitors to Gilroy Gardens Family Theme Park will discover the grounds transformed with a once-in-a-lifetime Chinese lantern festival experience. Called Lumination, the special celebration of ancient Chinese history and culture will run July 16 to Nov. 17, bringing in an estimated 650,000 guests, especially after sunset when the lanterns glow with vibrant colors.
Guests walking the 26-acre park will discover 30 gigantic Lumination light displays. Each one was designed and built by 50 master artists from Zigong, China, home to the original Chinese Lantern Festival. These temporary works of art are combinations of traditional Chinese lantern design and modern technology. Each display is composed of hundreds or even thousands of individual pieces and LED bulbs. Materials used to create the sculptures range from steel and silk to porcelain plates and tiny glass bottles filled with colored water. The light displays of Lumination illustrate more than 2,000 years of Chinese history from the Qin to the Qing dynasties.
“They’re steel frames that they make on the property and then they cover them with silk. It’s literally miles and miles of silk and steel – and it’s all hand done,” said Barb Granter, general manager for Gilroy Gardens. “It’s incredible to see the workers put these magnificent works together.”
As guests approach the park’s entrance gate, they are greeted with the sight of two enormous Chinese dragons representing the light of the sun. Walking through the park at night, visitors will find themselves gazing at the illuminations of hundreds of lanterns hanging from the trees, creating a mystical ambiance beyond anything they’ve ever seen, Granter said.
Carp Jumping Over Dragon Gate
Photo by Marty Cheek
Seemingly floating in the park’s lake, the immense Carp Jumping Over the Dragon Gate lantern reflects its brilliant colors on the waters. Behind it is the Temple of Heaven structure floating in the stream of a cascading waterfall. Guests can walk along the lake beside The Great Wall of China lantern. Other attractions include a Ming Vase lantern, panda bear and peacock lanterns, and Bejeweled Qilins, or a mythical hooved chimerical creature famous in Chinese and other East Asian cultures as a good omen. The qilins are made with thousands of small bottles filled with colored waters that have been hand-tied together. The light streams through them with a surreal luminescence.
One of the most spectacular exhibits on display at the park is a traditional Chinese dragon made with 60,000 porcelain plates hand-tied together at a length of 170 feet, the equivalent length of a Boeing 757. Stretched out into a straight line, the dragon would reach 220 feet long, Granter said.
Lumination is part of Gilroy Garden’s plan to encourage more visitors to come to the park beyond the regular opening hours, she said. It will help promote tourism to the area as people from the Bay Area and beyond come to the South Valley to experience the attraction.
The qilins are made with thousands of small bottles filled with colored waters that have been hand-tied together.
Photo by Marty Cheek
“We were looking for something to stay open into the evening,” she said. “The demographics of our small childrens park does not go past six o’clock, and so we wanted an attraction that would be able to extend those hours and attract a more adult audience, and so we were looking for events.”
Granter heard about VYA, a Chinese lantern company, through a Canadian company called DDM and saw it as an opportunity to create an evening attraction. Lumination has been in development for two years. The Chinese workers live on-site at the park, eating meals made by their own Chinese chef and working mainly at night and the early morning hours when the park has no guests.
“This is the first time that VYA, the lantern company, has had all of their lanterns illuminated with LED lighting,” Granter said. “It’s out of respect to our power consumption, but also they’re developing an understanding of how to work in California. They did a complete re-haul of all of their designs so that all of their lanterns are LED.”
Similar celebrations have been hosted in Toronto, London, Texas, and Florida, but the lanterns and light sculpture displays at Gilroy Gardens have been specially designed and constructed for the unique theme park venue, she said. The park’s gorgeously landscaped gardens, trees and water features provide the perfect natural backdrop for this splendid celebration of Chinese history and culture.
Photo by Marty Cheek
Visitors walk through a row of vertical lanterns at Gilroy Gardens Family Theme Park. The Chinese lanterns are part of Lumination and on display through the end of November.
Families with membership passes have been visiting the park watching the various displays in their stages of creation, Granter said.
“Most of our guests will come in and ask questions about what it is. Some of them don’t realize that because it is so colorful and beautiful during the day, they don’t realize how spectacular this is going to be at night,” she said. “When the advertising hits, people are going to know that this is an evening experience — it’s a Chinese lantern festival. They don’t know yet how spectacular it’s going to be when it lights up.”
Gilroy Gardens wants Lumination to be a true cultural experience for its guests. Chinese performers will do acrobatics and traditional juggling and mask-face changing shows at the Lakeside Amphitheater to entertain the guests at night. The Chinese Consulate in San Francisco has also visited the theme park and hopes to help promote Lumination as a cultural experience for Americans to discover Chinese culture, Granter said.
“They’re open to build some opportunities to promote cross-cultural experiences,” she said. “What we’re hoping is that second, third and fourth generation Chinese from the South Bay will visit, perhaps if they haven’t had an opportunity to go home to China and see a true lantern festival or their children have not had that experience.”
While Lumination’s vivid light displays showcase Chinese artistry of epic proportions, the Artisan Marketplace features talented artists from China creating equally intricate works of art on a smaller scale. As guests stroll through the merchant stalls at Gilroy Gardens, they can see these artists at work as they practice traditional techniques that have been handed down through generations. Their unique, hand-crafted works of art are available for purchase as souvenirs of the journey through 2,000 years of Chinese culture.
Among the artists are finger-painting works using an ancient technique that stretches back more than a thousand years ago to the Tang Dynasty (618-906). The artist makes use of his fingertips, fingernails and hands to create stunning works of art. Other artists include Chinese paper cutting designs used to decorate doors and windows.. Paper was invented during the Han Dynasty (206 BCE-220).
The lanterns are high-quality works of creativity that could be displayed in a museum, Granter said.
“It’s not a factory-made situation. It truly is an art form. They’re light sculptures which are illuminated from the inside,” she said. “This is also an opportunity for young adults and teenagers to see the beauty of the property for a reason. Lumination is not about a theme park. It’s about the culture of China. So I would say it could turn into a date night for young adults or a romantic night out for a couple.”
