The Magic of Hanami: Japan’s Deeply Rooted Spring Tradition
Celebrating life beneath the falling cherry blossoms.
There are intrinsic emotions embedded within our essence that are evoked from life’s ancient experiences. Life will endeavor to extract these feelings by sweeping through our soul as a flower-laden wind; I can’t understand why, but that breath of nature moves through us and fills the world with wonder.
It causes us to laugh, to smile, to hold each other close. And indeed, that archaic gust of wind causes the pink spring flowers to fall and, in doing so, bridges our hearts as people.
The following scene of spring — sakura season in Japan — will stay with me, for it evoked these feelings I can’t quite understand.
Quite simply, they’re the feelings of love.
We were one of the last groups in the park as the sun went down, blanketed in the glowing, beautiful darkness of dusk. It was getting cold, and the sea of people celebrating hanami, Japan’s springtime tradition which means looking at the flowers, had largely disappeared.
What I experienced and what I’ve seen for the past couple of weeks in Osaka is more than just looking at the flowers, however.
