Sakura Matsuri!

Amy L Webb

Every spring, people gather in parks throughout Japan and sit beneath the cherry trees for a tradition called "sakura matsuri" -- the festival of cherry blossoms. Typically, they bring picnics of sushi, rice balls, vegetables and sake and entertain each other with readings of poetry or amusing stories. It is the official mark of spring, a final celebration before work out in gardens and rice paddies begins.

Philadelphia, too, celebrates its own sakura matsuri the first week of April. Beginning Saturday, Fairmount Park will be sakura central as a week of horticultural and ethnic festivity blooms.

"This is a fantastic opportunity for the residents of Philadelphia," says Greta Hale, assistant director of the Japan America Society of Greater Philadelphia (JASGP). "Even if you don’t know anything about Japan, the opening day of the festival has fun, free activities for kids and adults to learn a little about Japan or just enjoy the music, food and cherry blossoms."

The festival is sponsored by Subaru and is part of a project started in 1998 by JASGP. The group launched a 10-year initiative to plant 1,000 cherry trees around Fairmount Park. This year, the group will plant 100 trees in Belmont Plateau. When the final trees are planted in 2007, JASGP hopes to plan a citywide festival.

"In 1926, the Japanese government donated many trees, including cherry blossom trees, to the city of Philadelphia for the sesquicentennial," Hale says. "The JASGP wanted to continue that tradition."

The trees and festival are funded through individual and corporate grants in addition to support from Subaru.

Several communities outside of Philadelphia also hold sakura matsuri in the spring, including the Washington, D.C.-based National Cherry Blossom Festival.

"The festival here continues to grow," Hale says. This is expected to be the largest cherry blossom festival held in Philadelphia. Hale says there should be at least 1,200 people on the opening day, with 6,000 in attendance throughout the week.

Activities this year will include workshops in kite making, taiko drumming, Japanese dance, martial arts, ikebana flower arrangement, origami and tea ceremony. Throughout the week, there will also be Japanese story hours held at various libraries and screenings of Japanese film. A Japanese performance group will also be performing taiko drumming and dance.

Admission for most of the events is free and open to the public.

For more information, see www.jasgp.org/sakura.

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