Bellagio’s
Conservatory & Botanical Gardens invites guests to celebrate the Year of
the Horse during Chinese New Year with a festive sanctuary boasting rich
cultural meaning and honoring the stallion symbolizing happiness and luck
through March 1.
The
design of the Conservatory’s tranquil temple is guided by the ancient practice
of Feng Shui – the art of using surroundings to attract harmony, balance and
positive life energy. Each garden within the Chinese New Year display
incorporates water, ensuring a positive flow of energy; and the three friends
of winter – pine, bamboo and plum, symbolizing perseverance, integrity and
modesty, respectively. Clusters of red silk lanterns and red firecrackers,
believed to ward off evil as they represent happiness and prosperity, hang
dramatically from the Conservatory’s ceiling.
The
display’s bold centerpiece features seven life-size horses on a lush three-tier
mountain while a majestic gold stallion rears at the mountaintop; the total
number of eight represents good fortune. Cascading waterfalls drift down the
mountain into a tranquil pond filled with more than 150 Koi fish while two
giant red lanterns illuminate the sky overhead.
At
the Conservatory’s entrance, an 18-foot-tall custom-made Chinese money tree
symbolizes good fortune and nobility. The lucky tree flourishes with 384
oversized gold-leafed coins on its branches as mounds of I-Ching coins, a
traditional Chinese symbol for money, surround its base. At the garden’s
corners, four ding pots, ancestral vessels that protect against bad fortune,
burn incense from their peaks for good luck.
A
zig-zag bridge extends from both sides of the Chinese-style pavilion in the
North Garden, providing a difficult route for negative energy and bad spirits.
“Lucky” children, each embellished with 1,800 multicolored flowers including
carnations, spider mums and Fuji mums, bring life to the display as they play
near the peaceful pavilion. In the South Garden, three floral children frolic
throughout the luminous Bromeliads.
This
garden provides a serene stage for the Las Vegas-based Beijing Trio to perform
traditional folk and pop music with authentic Chinese instruments from 5 p.m. –
6 p.m., nightly. The musicians arrive to the stage through an ancient moon
gate, serving as an inviting entrance into the Lunar New Year celebrations.
Legend
has it that Buddha asked all the animals to meet him on Chinese New Year. Twelve came. The seventh animal in the Asian
zodiac is the headstrong horse. Those born in the Year of the Horse tend to be
energetic, good with money and very fond of travel.
On
view through March 1, the Chinese New Year exhibit within Bellagio’s
Conservatory & Botanical Gardens is complimentary to the public and open
seven days a week, 24 hours a day.
3600
S Las Vegas Blvd, Las Vegas, NV 89109
(702)
693-7111
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