National Cherry Blossom Festival

This week is the 98th National Cherry Blossom Festival in Washington, D.C. which commemorates the gift of Japanese cherry trees from Yukio Ozaki, Mayor of Tokyo, on March 27, 1912.

The festival, being held between March 27 and April 11 this year, includes activities such as the Opening Ceremony on March 27, a fireworks display April 3, and a parade and Japanese street festival known as Sakura Matsuri on April 10. Other events include a 10-mile run, arts and crafts, kite festival, and other perfomances and events. You can check dates, times, and locations on the National Cherry Blossom Festival website.

About 700,000 tourists visit Washington D.C. annually during these weeks of celebration.

Among the interesting facts about the cherry trees are that the United States government responded with a gift of dogwood trees to the people of Japan, the festival was suspended during World War II and resumed in 1947, 3,800 more trees were accepted in 1965 by Lady Bird Johnson, Japanese horticulturists took clippings of the trees in Washington D.C. in 1981 to replace Yoshino trees in Japan that had been destroyed in a flood, and in 1999 plantings were made from clippings of a famous tree in Gifu Prefecture believed to be 1,500 years old.