Cherry Blossom Day - April 2nd

Cherry Blossom Day - April 2nd

Each year Cherry Blossom Day is celebrated on April 2nd.

Cherry Blossom Day - April 2nd

• National Cherry Blossom Festival
• Under The Cherry Blossom Tree
• After cherry blossom comes the cherries!
• Cherry Trivia and Fun
• A Funny Cherry Tree Story

Cherry Tree

National Cherry Blossom Festival Washington DC, USA

The National Cherry Blossom Festival Parade takes place on the first Saturday in April 4.  Each year the Parade runs along Constitution Avenue from 7th to 17th Streets, NW, and features giant balloons, marching bands, and performers.

Under The Cherry Blossom Tree

It was spring.  There were eggs in every bird's nest, the air buzzed with honeybees, and all at once the cherry trees blossomed.  The peasants forgot their cares in the Japanese village and congregated in the meadow to sing and dance their time away.

Even among this beauty someone was not happy, their miserly landlord sat alone mumbling and grumbling.  As he sat all alone eating a bowl of cherries and glaring at the merry villagers.  Then, quite by accident, he swallowed a cherry pip.  The pip began to sprout, and soon the landlord was the wonder of the village a cherry tree was growing out of the top of his head! 

The story of 'Under The Cherry Blossom Tree' is a favorite yarn in Japan.  Here is the book by Allen Say

Always Remember - After cherry blossom comes the cherries!

Cherry Trivia and Fun

• The English word cherry comes from old Norman French cherise , from which the modern French word for "cherry" [cerise] also comes. When the word 'cherise' first entered Middle English it was assumed to be a plural, and that there must logically be a singular "cheri'"- hence the English word 'cherry'.
• If life is a bowl of cherries, what am I doing in the pits? - Erma Bombeck
• The cherry is the state fruit of Utah.
• The earliest known mention of cherries is in Theophrastus [372-272 B.C.] "History of Plants", in which he indicated that cherries had been cultivated for hundreds of years in Greece.
• Michigan has over 35,000 acres of tart cherry trees and grows almost 75% of the tart cherries produced in the United States. Traverse City is called the Cherry Capital of the World.
• That last cherry soothes a roughness of my palate. - Robert Browning [1812-1889] English poet.
• The German word Kirsch, the cherry liqueur, came from the word karshu, the name given to the first cultivated cherries in Mesopotamia in 8 BC.
• At one time it was against the law to serve ice cream on cherry pie in Kansas, USA.
• Eau Claire, Michigan, USA, is known as the Cherry Pit Spitting Capital of the World.**
• Although the fruit has always been popular for dessert and culinary purposes, cherries were used during the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries for their medicinal properties.
• There are more than 1,000 varieties of cherries in the United States, but fewer than 10 are produced commercially.

** The Cherry Pit Spit began in 1974, when Herb Teichman, a Michigan cherry farmer, was looking for "something to do" with cherry pits. Growing from a neighbourhood get-together to an international competition, the Cherry Pit Spit is recognized by the Guinness Book of World Records as an official competition.

A Funny Cherry Joke

Knowing that the Priest was very fond of cherry brandy, one of the church elders offered to present him with a bottle on one consideration: that the pastor acknowledge receipt of the gift in the church newspaper.

"Gladly," responded the good man.

When the church magazine came out a few days later, the elder turned at once to the "appreciation" column.

There he read, "The minister extends his thanks to Elder Lewis for his gift of fruit and for the spirit in which it was given."

A Funny Cherry Tree Story

Little Jeremy lived in the countryside. They had to use an outdoor lavatory, and Jeremy hated it because it was hot in the summer and cold in the winter and smelt rather awful. The offending building was sitting on the bank of a creek and Jeremy determined that one day he would push it into the creek.

One day after a spring rain, the creek was swollen so Jez decided today was the day to push the outhouse into the creek. So he got a large stick and started pushing. Finally, the wooden structure toppled into the creek and floated away.

That night his dad told him they were going to the woodshed after supper. Knowing that meant a spanking, Jeremy asked why.

His dad replied, "Someone pushed the lavatory into the creek today. It was you, wasn't it son?"

Jeremy nodded – Yes

Then he thought a moment and said, "Dad, I read in school today that George Washington chopped down a cherry tree and didn't get into trouble because he told the truth.

His dad replied smartly, "Well, son, George Washington's father wasn't in the cherry tree."

A Poetic View Of Cherry Blossom

Loveliest of trees, the cherry now
Is hung with bloom along the bough,
And stands about the woodland ride
Wearing white for Eastertide.
Now, of my threescore years and ten,
Twenty will not come again,
And take from seventy springs a score,
It only leaves me fifty more.
And since to look at things in bloom
Fifty springs are little room,
About the woodlands I will go
To see the cherry hung with snow.

A. E. Housman, Shropshire Lad, 1887

Mount Fuji and Cherry Blossom

Sakura, Sakura.
Noyamamo satomo
Miwatasu kagiri.
Kasumi-ka kumo-ka.... asahi-ni niou
Sakura, Sakura,
Hanazakari.

Cherry Blossoms, cherry blossoms.
On mountains, in villages.
As far as you can see.
They look like fog or clouds. They are fragrant in the morning sun.
Cherry blossoms, cherry blossoms.
In full bloom.

Cherry blossom time is the season of the year when the whole country of Japan becomes imbued with the spirit of life and hope that is beyond the comprehension of Occidental minds; here the cherry tree is regarded as a principle of life whose snowy wand transforms the earth and gives new powers to the heart which may be shared by all classes from the humblest to the exalted.

Footnote:
Please send us your Cherry Blossom Day stories

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