By Herb Frazier, special to Charleston Currents  | Chinese lanterns will glow for four months beginning Nov. 15 at Magnolia Plantation and Gardens, illuminating America’s oldest garden at night for the first time in its 343-year history.

Magnolia Plantation and Gardens has partnered with the Zigong Lantern Group in China to present “Lights of Magnolia: Reflections of a Cultural Exchange.” The lantern festival includes custom-designed installations of large-scale thematically unified lanterns, a fusion of historic Chinese cultural symbols and images that represent the flora and fauna of Magnolia.

The lantern festival, the first ever at a public garden in North America for Zigong, places Magnolia in a position to play a prominent role in supporting Charleston’s tourism traffic, said Tom Johnson, the garden’s executive director. “We are expecting record-breaking attendance for this visually stimulating display of stunning Chinese art that will glow in the night,” he said.