Cherry Blossom Festival


Hanami (Cherry Blossom Festival)

Type of Holiday: Calendar/Seasonal
Date of Observation: March-April
Where Celebrated: Japan
Symbols and Customs: Cherry Blossom, Cherry Dance

ORIGINS

Hana means "flower" in Japanese, and hanami means "flower viewing." While the word for "cherry blossom" is sakura, the appreciation of the cherry blossom is so widespread in Japan that hanami has come to refer specifically to cherry blossoms. The pink-and-white blooms last for about two weeks in March-April, and during that time people swarm to Japan's public parks to picnic, play games, tell stories, and dance beneath the canopy of flowers. Companies even book certain places in advance so they can have hanami parties for their employees.

In Tokyo's Ueno Park-one of the most noted cherry blossom viewing places- the traditional way of viewing the cherry blossoms was an elaborate affair. Family groups would arrive in the morning and set up their quarters for the day, spreading mats and red blankets on the ground under the blossoming trees and hanging striped curtains bearing the family crest to screen off the area. Some of the groups stretched ropes from tree to tree and hung brightly colored kimonos over the line to serve as curtains. These closed-off areas served as a combination dining room and stage. After feasting, the groups visited with their neighbors or joined in the dancing and singing under the trees. Young girls would try to outdo each other by putting on their best holiday kimonos and parading around the park.

Today, people talk constantly during the brief blooming season about where the best cherry blossoms can be seen, the different varieties, and where trees of particular interest-because of their age, size, or number-can be found. Throughout the Hanami

month of April, trains and buses are crowded with people on their way to see the cherry blossoms. While some prefer to see an isolated tree in a remote mountain setting, others want to see hundreds of trees blooming together in a public park. Blossoms can also be seen in temple gardens, in pastures, and along riverbanks. The most famous viewing place is Yoshinoyama near Nara in the west of Japan, where it is said that a thousand trees can be seen at a glance and where young children holding cherry blossoms walk in procession through the main streets.

Since ancient times people in all parts of the world have honored the changing of the seasons. Many cultures divided the year into two seasons, summer and winter, and marked these points of the year at or near the summer and winter solstices, during which light and warmth began to increase and decrease, respectively. In pre-industrial times, humans survived through hunting, gathering, and agricultural practices, which depend on the natural cycle of seasons, according to the climate in the region of the world in which they lived. Thus, they created rituals to help ensure enough rain and sun in the spring and summer so crops would grow to fruition at harvest time, which was, in turn, duly celebrated. Vestiges of many of these ancient practices are thought to have survived in festivals still celebrated around seasonal themes.

The cherry blossom viewing season usually starts at the end of March in Kyushu, in early April in the Tokyo area, and in late April in northern Japan.

SYMBOLS AND CUSTOMS

Cherry Blossom

The Japanese have always thought of the sakura or cherry blossom as a symbol for their nation. Poets and artists have celebrated it in their work, and it is the one flower that embodies perfection. Samurai warriors regarded the way the cherry blossom falls at the peak of its beauty as a symbol of grace in death and of the samurai way of life, since so many of them died young. Modern-day Japanese soldiers have often compared their few brief hours of glory in combat to those of the short-lived blossom. The cherry blossom is also an important symbol in the Buddhist faith, which stresses the impermanence of life.

Cherry Dance

The real name for this dance is the Miyako Odori or "Dance of the Capital," but because it is performed during the cherry blossom season, it has become known as the Cherry Dance outside Japan. In Tokyo, Osaka, and other places where there are geisha-women trained as dancers, singers, and companions for men-there is a Cherry Dance at this time of year. The famous Cherry Dance in Kyoto is held during the month of April, and the best available artists and musicians take part in the performance. The opening scene, lit by lanterns, is especially beautiful, as are the geisha dances executed with a series of graceful movements done to the accompaniment of flutes and drums.

FURTHER READING

Bauer, Helen, and Sherwin Carlquist. Japanese Festivals. Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1965. Henderson, Helene, ed. Holidays, Festivals, and Celebrations of the World Dictionary. 3rd ed. Detroit: Omnigraphics, 2005. Ickis, Marguerite. The Book of Festivals and Holidays the World Over. New York: Dodd, Mead, 1970. MacDonald, Margaret R., ed. The Folklore of World Holidays. Detroit: Gale Research, 1992. Thurley, Elizabeth. Through the Year in Japan. London: Batsford Academic and Educational, 1985. Trawicky, Bernard, and Ruth W. Gregory. Anniversaries and Holidays. 5th ed. Chicago: American Library Assocation, 2000.

WEB SITES

Japanzine www.seekjapan.jp/article-1/912/Field+Guide+to+Japan:+Hanami+Fun+Facts! www.seekjapan.jp/article-1/901/Hanami+Manners+101

Cherry Blossom Festival (Hawaii)

February-MarchThe Cherry Blossom Festival in Hawaii is an annual Japanese cultural celebration held in Honolulu, usually from mid-February until the first week in April. The beauty of cherry blossoms is almost sacred in Japan, but the cherry blossoms of this festival are purely symbolic; cherry trees don't grow in Hawaii. The festival offers a variety of events: presentations of Kabuki drama, traditional Japanese dances, martial arts, and Japanese films, as well as demonstrations of such arts as weaving and paper-doll making. The celebration was created in 1953 by the Honolulu Japanese community to "bridge the cultural gap by sharing with others the essence of the Japanese heritage."
See also Hanami
CONTACTS:
Honolulu Japanese Junior Chamber of Commerce
2454 S. Beretania St., Ste. 205
Honolulu, HI 96826
808-949-2255; fax: 808-627-8841
www.cbfhawaii.com
SOURCES:
GdUSFest-1984, p. 43

Celebrated in: Hawaii

Cherry Blossom Festival (Northern California)AprilMore than 2,000 Japanese Americans and performers from Japan participate in this festival in San Francisco's Japantown that takes place over two consecutive weekends in April. Based on Hanami, a traditional festival in Japan, this celebration of Japanese culture and customs includes exhibitions of Japanese art and dancing, kimono and obi (the sash worn with a kimono) demonstrations, tea ceremonies, and bonsai exhibits. The climax of the festival is a three-hour parade from City Hall to the Japan Center at Post and Fillmore Streets. The parade includes singers and dancers, floats, Akita dogs, Taiko drummers, the Cherry Blossom Queen, and the traditional Taru Mikoshi, a portable shrine piled so high with casks of sake—an alcoholic beverage made from rice—that it takes 100 men to carry it. The festival lasts for seven days, covering two weekends in April. It was first held in 1968 to mark the official opening of San Francisco's Japan Center.
CONTACTS:
San Francisco Convention and Visitors Bureau
900 Market St., Ste. 900
San Francisco, CA 94103
415-391-2000; fax: 415-974-1992
nccbf.org
SOURCES:
GdUSFest-1984, p. 22