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:
-
Black History Month
-
It’s Giving Tuesday
-
Irohazaka road
-
Land of the midnight sun
-
Blue-throated toucanet, Los Quetzales National Park, Costa Rica
-
Redwood National and State Parks, California
-
Mount Field National Park, Tasmania, Australia
-
Swimming into the season
-
At the foot of Dubrovnik s Gibraltar
-
Día de los Muertos celebrations in Mexico
-
National Napping Day
-
Celebrating World Olive Tree Day
-
Sedona, Arizona
-
A place fit for the gods
-
The puffin-rabbit connection
-
Stepping into autumn
-
A day for our oceans
-
National Park Week begins
-
The confluence of the Arve and Rhône Rivers
-
Sharp-dressed bug
-
National Aviation Day
-
Poppies in bloom
-
Monteverde Cloud Forest Reserve in Costa Rica
-
A duckling swimming in a water meadow, Suffolk, England
-
Autumnal equinox
-
Everyone s watching the Perseids
-
Apples ready for harvest in Minnesota
-
Glacier cave in Iceland
-
A medieval celebration in the Mediterranean
-
A day of service for Dr. King
Bing Wallpaper Gallery

