Hanami, Cherry Blossom Viewing

This is cherry blossom viewing time around the world, at least in the northern hemisphere, and especially in Japan.

In Japan hanami means cherry blossom viewing. Literally hanami means flower viewing but for the past thousand years or so it has meant viewing cherry blossoms.

Kuro and I went walking Sunday afternoon to admire to blossoms in our neighborhood. I'm not sure how many cherry trees are in Magnolia, but within a mile of my house there must be fifty or more. 

Hanami is the occasion for flower viewing parties where groups of people take special food and sake to parks or temple grounds when the cherries are in bloom. There they spread blankets or thin tatami (straw mats), share food and drink and admire the ephemeral beauty of the cherry blossoms.

After a few cups of sake, people begin to sing, and after a few more cups of sake, especially the groups of younger people can become quite boisterous.

There is an even older tradition in Japan of viewing plum flowers, umemi. This custom, even though more ancient, doesn't appeal to the younger people so sometimes older folks will go to view the plum blossoms and enjoy a more sedate party, without the boisterous sounds of the young people partying nearby. 

As the cherry blossoms mature, they begin to fall while still in their prime. Today when we were walking under the trees and admiring the blossoms, they were just reaching maturity and there were no petals on the ground. Maybe by tomorrow evening the petals, still fully formed and elegant, will begin to fall. 

In Japan the petals falling at their peak of beauty came to symbolize soldiers in war, falling in their prime.   

Instead of soldiers, I see the falling petals symbolizing the people in our civilization who die unnecessarily.

• In the United States about 44,000 people died last year from drug overdose
• About 88,000 people died in 2015 from alcohol-related causes.
• Texting while driving causes 1,600,000 accidents with at least 4,020 teen deaths each year.
• There are approximately 480,000 deaths caused by smoking and breathing second-hand smoke.
• Pedestrian deaths while texting are on the increase. No concrete numbers yet but authorities estimate paying attention to cell phones causes ten percent more pedestrian deaths each year.

Like these flowers, light can shine through people. That light comes from religion, ingrained culture or family teachings. Religion denied, culture changed without thought for the greater good or families dissolved into individuals can block that light and the flowers suffer.  

We admire the falling petals of the cherry blossoms but so many lives flickering out before their time is sad. We need some changes in our lifestyle. Perhaps that's a topic for a different post.