It’s that time of the season, Spring is here! You can see the sun out there unexpectedly in Oregon, the trees changing colors, and the cherry blossoms starting to form in the beginning of March. Did you know that cherry blossoms can be a sign of Spring’s arrival? Cherry blossoms are called Sakura in Japanese. They’re the national flower of Japan and they represent the time of renewal and optimism. They bloom into the color of white and pink and last no more than two weeks.

They’re a symbolic flower of the Spring’s arrival. They first originated in Japan and then gifted the United States 2,000 cherry blossom trees in Washington D.C. as a token of friendship in 1909 by Major Ozaki People in America celebrate the cherry blossom festivals by taking pictures with it and going out there doing their own thing but this whole part of celebrating the festival takes place in Japan. What they originally do there is have picnics or parties to eat, drink, and barbecue underneath the cherry blossom trees.

In Japan, they host a cherry blossom festival to celebrate the beauty of nature and have communities gather up together for food, drinks, songs and friendship while the flowers are blooming.
Usually in America, when the cherry blossoms arrive in the spring, not a lot of people celebrate the Japanese festival but do go out and take amazing pictures with their families or friends.
Here’s a recent picture of our cherry blossoms in Portland Oregon. This is taken at the Tom McCall Waterfall Park.