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Cherry blossom show in Hanoi brings Vietnam, Japan closer
Linh Pham 00:06, 2019/04/01
The festival aims to bring Japanese culture closer to Vietnamese people amid enhanced bilateral ties.
Statistics by the organization board of the Japan Cherry Blossom Festival 2019 in Hanoi showed that roughly one million visitors came to enjoy the event during last weekend and was a token of the stronger Vietnam-Japan relationship. 
 
The 2019 Cherry Blossom Festival takes place in Hanoi's downtown on March 29-31. Photo: Dantri
The 2019 Cherry Blossom Festival takes place in Hanoi's downtown on March 29-31. Photo: Dantri
The festival, which started on Friday evening, will be extended by one day through April 1, has become an annual event in the capital city. The show marks the close Vietnam-Japan friendship already tightened over the years. 
 
Careful transport, storage, and decoration has created a festival of fresh flowers shining through the weekend, bringing about a joyful moments for the visitors, the Kinh Te Do Thi newspaper reported. 
 
Vietnam-Japan friendship tightened through festivals
 
The event helps build up the Vietnam-Japan friendship. Illustrative phôt
The event helps build up the Vietnam-Japan friendship. Photo: Dantri
The Japan Cherry Blossom Festival was first held in Vietnam in 2016 and has become an annual festival since then in big cities like Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City, and Danang.
 
The events have caught public attention, becoming one of the biggest and most expected cultural activities in Vietnam. 
 
The 2019 event in Hanoi showcased 20,000 branches of cherry blossom and nearly 300 trees brought from Japan, doubling that in 2018, the HanoiMoi newspaper quoted Nguyen Tang Minh from AIC Group as saying. 
 
Japanese symbolic features like Mount Fuji and Vietnamese ones such as palm-leaf conical hats, Hoi An lanterns were decorated at the central stage at the Ly Thai To park near Hoan Kiem lake.
 
This year’s festival also covered Japanese cuisine and traditional games such as Kendama, Shogi. A number of booths offered specialities and food from both Japan and Vietnam. 
 
Vietnamese girls in Japanese traditional costume. Photo: Vietnammoi
Vietnamese girls in Japanese traditional costume. Photo: Vietnammoi
Notably, the 2019 event included the selection of cherry Vietnam ambassador who will help build up the Vietnam-Japan friendship. 
 
Hanoi Moi cited Le Xuan Son, editor-in-chief of the Tien Phong newspaper, as saying that qualifications required from an ambassador are based on knowledge, Japanese language fluency, and good personality, but not mainly physical beauty. 
 
History of the festival 
 
Photo: Japan-magazine
Cherry blossom in Japan. Photo: Japan-magazine
The Japan Cherry Blossom Festival or Hanami in Japanese with the meaning of flower viewing is Japanese traditional custom of enjoying the transient beauty of flowers lasting from the 17th century. 
 
From the end of March to early May, cherry trees bloom all over Japan. In modern-day Japan, hanami mostly consists of having an outdoor party beneath the sakura during daytime or at night.
 
The hanami celebrations usually involve eating and drinking, and playing and listening to music. Some special dishes are prepared and eaten at the occasion, like dango and bento, and sake is commonly drunk as part of the festivity.
 
Smaller hanami celebrations take place outside Japan namely Taiwan, Korea, the Philippines, Vietnam, China, the US, and European countries like Finland, Sweden, and Italy. 
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