Vancouver is home to about 40,000 cherry trees. Each spring, these trees blossom with fragile light pink and white blossoms. The flourish of colour is accompanied by a characteristically sweet smell that interrupts the grey of a Vancouver winter and heralds a shift towards a brighter future.
Many of Vancouver’s cherry blossom trees originated as gifts from Japan. In the early 1930s, trees were presented to the Vancouver Parks Board to honour Japanese Canadians who served in WWI; in 1958, another three hundred cherry trees were donated by the Japanese consul as “an eternal memory of good friendship between our two nations.” Today, the trees are emblematic of peace between Japan and Canada – they serve as a continual reminder of our country’s history and our present.
In 2006, an annual Cherry Blossom Festival was independently conceived to celebrate the widely appreciated gifts. Across Vancouver, the public can wander around and experience the arrival of spring by admiring the pink and white blossoms. The festival aims to further promote a sense of cultural unity across Vancouver, bringing together individuals of every culture who appreciate the natural beauty and flourish of life the trees embody both sensually and thematically.
“The Festival unites Vancouver’s citizens—a citizenry with a richly diverse cultural heritage—in happy celebration of this unique seasonal phenomenon. The Festival inspires participants to express their response to these extraordinary trees in music, poetry, photography, art, design, craft and cuisine.”
In 2008, the VanDusen Botanical Garden agreed to host the Cherry Blossom Festival, and planted a cherry tree grove to commemorate the event.
This weekend, April 11-12, VanDusen Botanical Garden will host Sakura Days Japan Fair, a mini festival within the Cherry Blossom Festival dedicated to showcasing Japanese and Japanese-Canadian culture to the greater Canadian community in an effort to facilitate better understanding and relationships.
With delicious Japanese food and traditional Japanese dance and music as added incentive, we look forward to seeing you at the Garden this weekend!
http://www.japanfairvancouver.com