Cherry blossoms at the National Mall, Washington, DC, USA

© Sean Pavone/Alamy

Cherry blossoms at the National Mall, Washington, DC, USA

This week marks the start of the Cherry Blossom Festival, which commemorates the gift of 3,000 cherry trees from Japan to the US capital of Washington, DC, in 1912. The US National Park Service says that during a two-week period each spring, the festival draws more than one million visitors to the National Mall, a landscaped park which is home to iconic monuments including the Lincoln Memorial and the Washington Monument. In Japan, the custom of picnicking under the cherry blossoms is known as ‘hanami’ and it’s said to be more spectacular at night, when revellers hang lanterns from the tree branches to illuminate the blooms.