Reston — Over 800 hand-made lanterns have been shipped from southern China to northern Virginia for the Chinese Lantern Festival at Roer’s Zoofari, the old Reston Zoo, in Vienna.

All the lanterns in the festival are life-sized or oversized animals that stand at heights as tall as 55 feet, says George Zhao, spokesperson for the festival.

His favorite part of the festival, which is themed “The Wild,” are the cheetahs.

“I really like the emotion on their faces and the details that our artists have paid attention to,” he says.

In total, 50 artists put the lanterns together over the course of a month before they were shipped and assembled by a team of 18 people on site, Zhao says.

While there are 12 main steps in the entire design process— like assembling the three-dimensional shapes out of wire, stringing the light bulbs and stretching various colors of satin fabric over the framework— he says the most important part of the lantern design process is when the chief artist paints on the finishing details, like the animal’s eyes and face.

Viewers can expect anything but the traditional lantern.

While most are made of satin, there are a few mixed-material lanterns that are unordinary. For example, there is one exhibit that features elephants made of ceramic plates, wine cups, spoons and rice bowls.

“The elephants also spray water out of their trunks,” Zhao says.

There is also a peacock exhibit near the safari’s goat pens that has lanterns that are made of thousands of glass bottles that are filled with dyed liquids.

The Chinese Lantern Festival is traditionally held on Jan. 15 where people celebrate by eating sweet rice dumplings, watch performances and create arts and crafts, says Zhao.

Starting this week, the festival will provide two 30-minute martial art performances and demonstrations of Thai Chi.

“After the performances, we’re going to bring onto the stage some kids who are interested in learning and teach them how to practice kung fu in groups,” Zhao says. “The performers will teach them how to do the movements and set the poses.”

There will also be food trucks on site from nearby restaurants selling various types of cuisine.

Zhao immigrated to Canada from China in 1999 to work on cultural exchange programs. Now his company travels throughout the United States bringing the Chinese Lantern Festival to different venues.

“I hope people can get a better understanding of the Chinese Lantern culture,” he says.

The festival will be open weekly Wednesday through Sunday from 5 to 7 p.m. in November and daily in December until its last evening on New Year’s Day.