This week marks the start of the National Cherry Blossom Festival, which commemorates the gift of 3,000 cherry trees from Japan to the city of Washington, DC, in 1912. The National Park Service says that during a two-week period each spring, the festival draws more than one million visitors to the National Mall, aka America’s Front Yard. In Japan, the custom of picnicking under the cherry blossoms is known as ‘hanami,’ and it’s said to be more spectacular at night, when revelers hang lanterns from the tree branches to illuminate the blooms.
Cherry blossoms at the National Mall, Washington, DC
Today in History
More Desktop Wallpapers:
-
Val Gardena, South Tyrol, Dolomites, Italy
-
Gateway Arch in St. Louis, Missouri
-
Hispanic Heritage Month
-
Floating market, Kaptai Lake, Bangladesh
-
Wild and Scenic Rivers Act
-
Pollinator Week
-
Paradise, found
-
Here we mark the price of freedom
-
World Lizard Day
-
Feature Attraction: 85 years at the drive-in
-
Prasat Phanom Rung temple ruins, Thailand
-
Celebrating Panama s independence
-
Does it swim in slow motion too?
-
Fallow deer, Bradgate Park, Leicestershire, England
-
Palace of Westminster, London, England
-
World Penguin Day
-
Mount Hood, Oregon
-
A bohemian feline
-
World Space Week begins
-
Chocolate Hills
-
Red lechwe, Okavango Delta, Botswana
-
Hang Sơn Đoòng Cave, Vietnam
-
Replica of a Viking home in Dublin National Botanic Gardens, Ireland
-
Lake Bled, Slovenia
-
Juneteenth
-
Azaleas blooming on Hwangmaesan Mountain, South Korea
-
Big Bend National Park in Texas turns 81
-
Basking in the glow
-
Midwinter freeze
-
Hitsujiyama Park, Saitama Prefecture, Japan