Spring officially starts with the spring or vernal equinox, occurring at 11:06 pm EST on March 19, when the Earth perfectly aligns so that both hemispheres receive equal amount of sunlight. But in the nation's capital, spring has already sprung with the early flowering of the city's iconic 3,800 cherry trees, painting the city a pale pink and white.
The four-week National Cherry Blossom Festival in commemoration of Japan's 1912 gift to America, begins tomorrow, March 20. Attracting nearly 1.5 million people from around the nation and world, the festival occurs during peak bloom until April 14. It features arts and musical performances, a kite festival and a parade, among other activities.
Peak Bloom
"PEAK BLOOM!" the National Mall National Park Service posted across its social media accounts on March 17, notifying the public that "70 percent of the Yoshino Cherry blossoms are open." This is the earliest peak bloom in at least two decades. NPS had previously predicted the peak bloom between March 23 and 26.
Weather-dependent, peak bloom typically oscillates between the last week of March and the first week of April, with the earliest peak ever recorded on March 15, 1990, according to NPS. This year, the city experienced a warmer winter.
In addition to being impacted by increasing global temperatures, cherry blossoms face threats from other environmental factors, including rising sea levels in the Basin. For some cherry trees, this will be their last peak bloom, as the NPS plans to remove 158 cherry trees threatened by deteriorating seawalls. The removal is part of a three-year, $113 million seawall rehabilitation project set to start in May. The nearly 455 impacted trees, including hundreds of cherry trees, will be replanted upon the project's completion, NPS wrote in a statement.
Seeding a Friendship
The trees were a gift of friendship from Mayor Yukio Ozaki of Tokyo. In February 1912, 3,020 cherry trees were shipped from Yokohama, Japan, to the United States. Initially arriving in Seattle, Washington, the trees, of 12 varieties, were loaded onto freight cars destined for Washington, D.C.
On March 27, a day after their arrival, then-First Lady Helen Taft and Iwa Chinda, wife of the Japanese Ambassador, planted two Yoshino cherry trees on the bank of the Tidal Basin. Over the following eight years, workers continued lining the Tidal Basin with Yoshino trees.
Since then, several First Ladies have participated in the tradition of planting cherry trees. On April 4, 1965, First Lady Claudia "Lady Bird" Johnson, along with Ryuji Takeuchi, the wife of the Japanese ambassador, re-created the original 1912 cherry tree planting. Exactly 100 years since the original planting, on March 27, 2012, First Lady Michelle Obama sowed the first centennial sapling.
Stumpy's Last
As thousands of visitors flock to the Tidal Basin in the coming days, one cherry blossom in particular is getting a lot of love. Known as "Stumpy," named after a Reddit user's joke, the resilient, largely hollow tree has withstood treacherous floods and become an icon. This will be Stumpy's last peak bloom as NPS will remove it later this Spring during its seawall rebuilding project. In light of this, locals and visitors are paying their respects to Stumpy, some by leaving flowers, posting photos together and others by leaving a whiskey bottle at its trunk!
Uncommon Knowledge
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Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
