No not education just the need to be in school that day compared to the day out. Which will be once in a lifetime.
This is precisely why I used the word 'education' rather than 'school'.
TBH a Chinese lantern festival sounds pretty fucking awesome to me (rather than the 'trip to Santa' that this thread started off about) and yes, I think there is probably some really cool educational stuff you can get out of it.
Two issues here.
1: The fact that this particular thing has the potential to be educational doesn't negate the point about taking an education seriously. Just because you do naice things whilst skiving school, doesn't mean everyone else will, but the tiny speck of erosion to the general valuing of education remains. Some lucky kids get pulled out to do awesome stuff, others see this and think: I'll have a bit of that. The classic example is the cheap-holiday-at-the-end-of-term argument. So: do you have a social conscience? Do you want your children to have one?
2: Do you really, really think the OP (or anyone else going "Fuck it! Go!") is going to approach this festival with an eye to education- as in; actually learning stuff, rather that going 'ooooo' a lot? I seriously doubt there will be much going on other than wandering round looking at stuff.
Oh, and: once in a lifetime? Well, possibly. I'd be willing to bet, though, that if Longleat make enough money out of it they'll be doing it for years.