To set eyes on transient beauty, lay hold of fleeting spring, feel time brush langorously past as lithe willows sway, enjoy the translucent canopy of paper thin blooms overhead... flitting, flying, falling so perfectly, none out of place.
This is the Cherry Blossom Festival 2009 in Beijing. Weeks of anticipation turned into overwhelmed sight and a gentle heart's sigh.
It was on the first Saturday of April 2009 that I became a privileged partaker of these beauteous blooms, a guest ushered into the magical alcove of millions of flowerheads, all singing the same springsong in the breeze.
No matter that hundreds of local denizens were there; on the contrary they added to the authenticity of the experience. No notion of genteel Japanese hanami here either; it was crowds of all ages, families and friends out in full force, children running, tumbling, crying. It was a private and public enjoyment all at once.
An outsider like me finds it most strange and a little amusing that ladies donning contemporary garb would wear wreaths of plastic cherry blossoms in their hair, not just in the park but onto the public bus outside. A singular sighting I dismissed as a lone, high-spirited young lass but wandering deeper and deeper into the garden, more and more such lasses appeared before me, as in a vision!
The girls were real all right. They were in the flush of exuberance, chatting happily with their friends or special someones, colourful crowns bobbing in the sea of heads. Here are some of them
Then, there are the stars of the show, the gracious hosts who forebear the multitude of feet on their turf.
We are told that there are 2000 cherry blossom trees of 20 varieties, so this is only
the slightest sampling of the show...
This is the handmaiden to the cherry blossoms, called YingChunHua (literally translated as "welcome-spring flower"):
It was a hive of activity in the park: Tiny tots admiring each other all decked out... Enterprising Chinese selling all sorts of artificial flowers to the spring-inebriated crowds... In child-centric China, sweet sellers never go out of business. Simple pleasures in life... bubbles and bunnies. More simple pleasures in life... the humble shuttlecock! That's the outdoor spirit... spot the 'gung ho' baby.
As the sun began to set and activity dropped a notch, it wasn't clear whether the multitudes were there to gaze at cherry blossoms with single-hearted devotion or to exult in the presence of spring with soaring spirits. But surely the beauteous blossoms would have no quarrel with the latter. Cherry blossoms and spring, why, they're the most natural bedfellows!
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