Emperor Saga of the Heian Period adopted this custom, and celebrated parties to view the flowers with sake and feasts under the blossoming branches of sakura trees in the Imperial Court in Kyoto. This was said to be the origin of hanami in Japan. Poems were written praising the delicate flowers, which were seen as a metaphor for life itself; beautiful, but lasting for a very short time. This 'temporary' view of life is very popular in Japanese culture and is usually considered as an admirable form of existence; for example, in the samurai's principle of life ending when it's still beautiful and strong, instead of slowly getting old and weak. The Heian era poets used to write poems about how much easier things would be in Spring without the sakura blossoms, because their existence reminded us that life is very short:
Hanami was used as a term that meant "cherry blossom viewing" for the first time in the Heian era novel "Tale of Genji" (chapter 8, 花宴 "Hana no En, "Under the Cherry Blossoms""). From then on, in "tanka" and in "haiku" poetry, "flowers" meant "sakura", and the terms "hanami" and "flower party" were only used to mean sakura blossom viewing.
At the beginning, the custom was followed only by the Imperial Court, but the samurai nobility also began celebrating it during the Azuchi-Momoyama Period (1568–1600). In those years, Toyotomi Hideyoshi gave great hanami parties in Yoshino and Daigo, and the festivity became very popular through all the Japanese society. Shortly after that, farmers began their own custom of climbing nearby mountains in the springtime and having lunch under the blooming cherry trees. This practice, called then as the "spring mountain trip", combined itself with that of the nobles' to form the urban culture of hanami. By the Edo Period (1600–1867), all the common people took part in the celebrations, in part because Tokugawa Yoshimune planted areas of cherry blossom trees to encourage this. Under the sakura trees, people had lunch and drank sake in cheerful feasts.
Japanese people continue the tradition of hanami. People fill parks to eat and drink under the flowering trees. In more than half of Japan, the cherry blossoming days come at the same time of the beginning of school and work after vacation, and so welcoming parties are often opened with hanami. Usually, people go to the parks to keep the best places to celebrate hanami with friends, family, and company co-workers many hours before. In many places such as Ueno Park, temporary paper lanterns are hung for night viewing of the flowers.
The blossom forecast or cherry blossom front is announced each year by the Japan Meteorological Agency. The first cherry blossoms happen in the subtropical southern islands of Okinawa, while on the northern island of Hokkaido, they bloom much later. In most large cities like Tokyo, Kyoto and Osaka, the cherry blossom season normally takes place around the end of March and the beginning of April. The television and newspapers closely follow this "cherry blossom front", as it slowly moves from south to north.
Hanami is also popular outside of Japan. There are hanami celebrations in Korea, Philippines, China, and elsewhere (many other places).
In 1912, Japan gave 3,000 sakura trees to the United States to celebrate the nations' friendship. These trees were planted in Washington, D.C.. 3,800 more trees were added 1956. These sakura trees are a popular tourist attraction. Each year, the "National Cherry Blossom Festival" happens when they bloom in early Spring.
In Macon, Georgia, another cherry blossom festival called the "International Cherry Blossom Festival" is celebrated every spring. Macon is known as the "Cherry Blossom Capital of the World" because 300,000 sakura trees grow there.
In Brooklyn, New York, the "Annual Sakura Matsuri Cherry Blossom Festival" takes place in May at Brooklyn Botanic Garden. This festival started in 1981 and is very popular.
Landmarks
Originally, a landmark literally meant a prominent, easily identified geographic point, (like a mountain, a cliff, or a river) used by explorers and others to find their way back or through an area.
In modern use, it includes anything that can be recognized easily, such as a monument, building, or other structure. In American English it is the main word used to call places that are tourist attractions because they are beautiful, or big, or they have historical importance. Some, such as National Landmarks, are on official lists of landmarks. Landmarks in the British English are normally used for casual navigation, such as giving directions to someone to get somewhere. This is done in American English as well.
Landmarks also can be of two different categories: natural (e.g., physical features such as waterfalls and mountains), and structures constructed by humans. Many of them are World Heritage Sites.
Some important landmarks across the world today include:
Neighbourhood
A neighbourhood or neighborhood is a geographic community in a larger city, town or suburb. Neighbourhoods are often social communities because the people that live in them commonly talk with each other. Researchers have not agreed on an exact definition.
According to urban scholar Lewis Mumford, Neighbourhoods have always exist where humans live. Many of the functions of the city are usually distributed into neighbourhoods. Archaeologists have found evidence of neighbourhoods in the ruins of most of the earliest cities around the world. Historical documents give information about neighbourhood life in many historical preindustrial or nonwestern cities.
Neighbourhoods are usually created by social interaction between people living near each another. They are local social groups larger than households that are not under the control of city or state officials. In some early urban traditions, basic municipal functions such as protection, marriages, cleaning and repairs are done by neighbourhoods. This is shown to have happened in historical Islamic cities.
Most ancient and historical cities also had administrative districts. These were used by the government for taxation and social control. Administrative districts are usually larger than neighbourhoods. They often cover areas that are larger than just one neighbourhood. Sometimes, administrative districts are just one neighbourhood. This leads to a lot of control of social life by officials. For example, in the T’ang period Chinese capital city Chang’an, neighbourhoods were districts. There were state officials who controlled life and activity at the neighbourhood level.
Neighbourhoods in very old cities often grouped certain people together. Ethnic neighbourhoods were important in many old cities. They are still common in cities today. Economic specialists, including craft makers, merchants, and others, could be grouped together in neighbourhoods. There were also neighbourhoods based around certain religions. One important part to neighbourhood being different from each other and their people getting along well was how people moved from rural areas to the cities. This was always happening in old cities. The people moving to the cities often moved in with relatives and people they knew from before moving to the city.
In the mainland of the People's Republic of China, the term is usually used for the urban administrative division. These divisions are found below the district level. A subdistrict level may exists in some cities. They are also called streets. The naming may be different from one city to another. Neighbourhoods usually have 2,000 to 10,000 families. Within neighbourhoods, families are grouped into smaller groups of 100 to 600 families. These smaller groups are supervised by a residents' committee. These groups are often broken down into even smaller groups of fifteen to forty families. In most urban areas of China, neighbourhood, community, residential community, residential unit, residential quarter have the same meaning.