This year marks the centennial celebration of the National Cherry Blossom Festival in Washington, D.C., an event that ends April 27 after five weeks packed with such happenings as parties, festivals, tours and a parade to celebrate this perennial sign of spring.
The festival began in 1912, when the mayor of Tokyo presented 3,000 cherry trees to the city of Washington, D.C., in honor of the friendship between the two nations. Almost 100 of these still survive.
The Japanese government gave first lady Lady Bird Johnson 3,800 more trees in 1965, which were also planted in the Tidal Basin. Last year, more than 160 trees were added, planted at the Martin Luther King, Jr. National Memorial, located in the Tidal Basin.
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