GRAND DISPLAYS: There are many ways to greet the Lunar New Year, and bevies of festivals and gatherings gearing up to celebrate, dance in, and embrace the Year of the Sheep. But few cities can top Las Vegas for grand, splashy, and glittery style when it comes to joyful displays and visual interpretations of the Lunar New Year. Bouquets and lanterns are common touches, and the animal that symbolizes the year on approach, too. And for very big, very picturesque, very free-to-see, and oh-so-beautiful representations of all that the year-to-come stands for, you'll want to slip off The Strip and into...
THE FORUM SHOPS AT CAESARS PALACE: A dragon symbolizing "power, strength, and good luck" can be found on the Fortuna Terrace. But this is no mere dragon: The "massive, 950-lb. dragon is covered in 30,000 red and amber LED lights, many of which flicker, giving the vibrant beast a vibrant look and dynamic feel." The majestic creature is 22 feet in length, six feet wide, and some 12 feet tall. There's a party in the dragon's honor, too, ahead: Students from a local school will "perform the traditional dragon parade throughout The Forum Shops" on Feb. 19 starting at 10 a.m.
BELLAGIO CONSERVATORY & BOTANICAL GARDENS: A 14-foot-tall "grassy mountain," incense diffusers, I-Ching coins, and some 22,000 flowers in shades of red and gold fill the glass-roofed nature space. The Year of the Yang is at the heart of the leafy, petal-filled display, which includes a traditional home complete with jade doorknobs, five animated goats, a 21-foot-tall lantern, and a pond full of Koi fish. While goats are the stars of the Bellagio display, look for rams to receive their Lunar New Year due "elsewhere around the resort."
