Under the Same Moon: Cherry Blossom Festival

Happy Blossom Festival

April 3 will be our dear Helene's 25th birthday and our dear friend Candace's 70th. It has been sweet to adopt the habit of "Hanami," the many centuries - old practice of picnicking under a blooming Sakura or ume tree. (Wikipedia)

In the 3rd century it was only the elite who would practice this tradition.

Dan and I like many others have had a meal out under the blossoms, and I spent the better part of an afternoon under a tree thinking of our dear spring birthday sweethearts. I include Sarah who will turn 27 April 23 and on her birthday we remember Candace's mom Helen, Edna Whiteley and Gillian Anderson. HappyBirthday dear ones you are lovely, long lasting flowers in our lives.

Emperors planted cherry blossoms to denote their territory...hence the proliferation.

We saw a 15 year old girl standing staring into a fully blossomed tree. Everyone is taking pictures of them as if in the next second the wind will sweep all the petals away. They are likened to clouds for good reasons.

For this short time of the blossoms, huge trees burst out in magnificent blossoms and then within days the petals are blown into the streets and rivers. People take this time to remember how beautiful life is yet how short, they marvel at the beauty and pay attention because it is so short lived.

The symbolism for the Japanese is about the ephemeral nature of life and a Buddhist concept of mono no aware, or pathos of things, or empathy, or sensitivity to ephemera. A deep and gentle sadness about the reality of life's impermanence. (Wikipedia)

Often Dictators co-opt a people's long loved symbols for their own purposes in order to influence many people and hide any destructive intent. That was done here during the war, when the fleeting life of the blossoms was likened to the brilliant burst of a young kamikaze pilots life.

People in Japan reclaim the simple practice of a quiet, gentle walk under the cherry blossom symbol as a meditation on the beauty of our swift journey in this life. We talked to many people who came out to enjoy the beauty.

Every age of person is out for a bike ride, walk, picnic or just to sit. The only place or time we can think of huge groups of people specifically out to meditate on a marvel of nature encases like this is sometimes in Vancouver in the summer on a particularly beautiful summer day and tons of people go down to Spanish banks to picnic and walk along to enjoy the ocean and perhaps a particularly low tide.

In this huge city of many and varied attractions people are out to enjoy the blossoms in the several days they are in full bloom. There is a society which tracks and publicizes the blossom schedule throughout Japan. Don't you love that!