[Author’s note: I have started the Love, Loss, and Loyalty series for the iGlobe to show ideas throughout history that dealt with these themes. I decided to write about Washington D.C. and the cherry blossoms because although so many people visit here to see the cherry blossoms, they really don’t know the history behind it. Also, if anyone is planning a spring vacation, come to the nation’s capital! I know it may be hot and humid, but I love it here and I think it is one of the most exciting cities in the States! I love living here, because it is a cultural and political center for the country, and you will love it if you visit as well!]
Every year, more than 700,000 people flock the nation’s capital to view the one and only Cherry Blossom Festival. Well, there are cherry blossom festivals elsewhere, but I assure you, my dear readers, that none of them top Washington’s Cherry Blossom Festival.
The National Cherry Blossom Festival is a three-week long festival that celebrates the peak season of the cherry blossoms, and the exact times vary depending on the weather each year; however, it is usually around mid-March.
There are many, many events that take place, including the Blossom Kite Festival, where you would see hundreds of kites harmoniously flying side-by-side together. Also, every day there is a sushi and sake celebration, classes about cherry blossoms, and bike tours of the Tidal Basin, which is located along the Potomac River. Not only that, you can view wonderful art exhibits, cultural performances, rakugo, kimono fashion shows, dancing, singing, martial arts, and a rugby tournament. If that’s not enough, on the last Saturday of the festival, there is a parade called the Sakura Matsuri-Japanese Street Festival and it is the largest Japanese Cultural Festival in the United States.
Along the Tidal Basin, there are 3,020 trees, each of which is one type of twelve varieties. There are a multitude of Yoshino and Kwanzan trees. Yoshino trees, being the most popular in Washington, grow white blossoms, and are mingled with Akebono trees, which grow pale pink blossoms. The Kwanzan trees have clear pink blossoms, and are placed alongside the Fugenzen and Shirofugen trees. In addition, you may find Weeping Cherry, Autumn Cherry, Sargent Cherry, Usuzumi, and Takesimensis trees.
Now, if you are wondering why all this sounds so Japanese, well, that is where the history begins. In 1910, when the first batch of 2,000 trees arrived diseased, another effort was made. In 1912, Mayor Yukio Ozaki of Tokyo City in Japan gave a gift of 3,000 cherry blossoms to the city of Washington, DC, as a sign of their friendship with the United States. In a famous ceremony in March of the same year, First Lady Helen Herron Taft and Viscountess Chinda, the wife of the Japanese ambassador to the United States, planted the first two trees on the north bank of the Tidal Basin. These two trees were marked by a plaque, and the United States sent to Japan dogwood trees as a present. Soon, more and more of the trees were being planted.
During World War II, when Japan and the United States were at war, the planting of trees ceased; however, after a peace treaty in 1954, several more trees were given as gifts between the two countries, and that is how a simple gift became a major festival in the nation’s capital today.
Sources:
"History of the Cherry Blossom Trees and Festival." National Cherry Blossom Festival. National Cherry Blossom Festival, n.d. Web. 26 Apr. 2016.
United States. National Park Service. "Cherry Blossom Festival (U.S. National Park Service)." National Parks Service. U.S. Department of the Interior, n.d. Web. 26 Apr. 2016.
