As many of you know, either from your friends’ Instagram feeds or from your own hike downtown, the cherry blossoms have bloomed!
The 2019 National Cherry Blossom Festival ended this past weekend on April 14. For three weeks, starting March 20 this year, over 1.5 million visitors have come to the nation’s capital, Washington, D.C., to see the beautiful flowers.
The festival is about more than just the flowers, though. It is a symbol of the friendship between the United States and Japan which began over a century ago.
In 1912, Tokyo Mayor Yukio Ozaki gifted 3,020 trees to D.C. The First Lady, Helen Herron Taft, officially planted the first two of these trees with Viscountess Chinda, wife of the Japanese ambassador.
However, this was not the first attempt to bring cherry blossoms to the American capital, nor was it even the first D.C. or National Cherry Blossom Festival.
In fact, Eliza Ruhamah Scidmore, who later became the first female board member of the National Geographic society, tried for 24 years to plant cherry blossom trees along the Potomac River, beginning in 1885. In 1906, renowned botanist David Fairchild planted 1,000 trees at his Chevy Chase estate. Many years of coordination between advocates and the government to plant cherry blossom trees in the Washington area followed.
In 1927, a group of children celebrated the first “D.C. cherry blossom festival,” reenacting the original planting of 1912. It became a national event in 1934.
Since then, there have been additions to the trees’ number and variety. For example, First Lady Bird Johnson accepted 3,800 more trees of the Yoshino variety in 1965, many of which were planted around the Washington Monument.
The National Park Service monitors the growth of the trees and determines the peak bloom each year. This year, the cherry blossoms reached peak bloom on April 1.
Today, the National Cherry Blossom Festival involves more than just appreciating the flowers. The festival was expanded in 1994 to include two weeks of events. Visitors can enjoy the Opening Ceremony with Japanese and American performances, the Blossom Kite Festival, Petalpalooza with live music and games, the Cherry Blossom Festival Parade, and more.
There are shuttles around the scenic route in case you get tired from walking, as well as maps throughout indicating the variety of cherry blossom trees. Many people take the Metro, but there are also free holiday parking lots and street parking around East Potomac Park.
For those of you who couldn’t make the trip to the capital, we’ve taken some pictures for you. We hope you’ll take the time to visit next year, but for now, enjoy!
Photos courtesy of Charese Vo
Article by MoCo Student staff writer Charese Vo of Richard Montgomery High School.