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Introducing hanami: the Japanese tradition that'll make you fall in love with nature.

'When cherry blossoms scatter ... no regrets.' — Kobayashi Issa

When it comes to viewing cherry blossoms, timing is everything.

Get the timing of your viewing party wrong, and all you'll see in the park are little red buds — or worse, a ground littered with the pink "snow" of fallen petals.

But get it right, and well ... just take a look.


Image by Kazuhiro Nogi/AFP/Getty Images.

Cherry blossoms bloom all over the world every spring.

If you live in Vancouver, Canada, Washington, D.C., or one of these other cities, you can see them right now at the end of March. (Go! Quickly!)

But in Japan, cherry blossoms are an even bigger deal. Their arrival generates national celebration.

The soft pink blooms, called sakura by the Japanese, only live for about 10 days every year. In Tokyo, their annual bloom usually occurs around the end of March, signaling the official start of spring.

Image by Junko Kimura/Getty Images.

Watching sakura blooms — often in the company of good friends and good food — is called hanami. And the Japanese take it very, very seriously.

During the 10- to 14-day period, hundreds of thousands of people flock to parks and gardens to enjoy picnics and gatherings and bask in the brief beauty of these bountiful blossoms.

Image by Junko Kimura/Getty Images.

Some dress up for the occasion.

Image by Yoshikazu Tsuno/AFP/Getty Images.

Others create art in honor of the season.

Sakura is one of the most popular symbols in Japanese culture, immortalized in art, stories, and this festive ice sculpture. Image by Yoshikazu Tsuno/AFP/Getty Images.

The hanami tradition is said to have begun during Japan's Nara period, when aristocrats would pass time in the spring admiring ume (plum) blossoms.

Over time, people began to associate hanami more with sakura blossoms, making springtime offerings to the Shinto spirits within the cherry trees in hopes of a good harvest to come.

These cats aren't part of a traditional offering, unless your religion is Instagram. Image by Junko Kimura/Getty Images.

In later years, Emperor Saga would hold feasts for his imperial court under the sakura blooms, drinking sake and listening to sakura-inspired poetry.

By the start of the Edo period, all levels of Japanese society were celebrating cherry blossom season.

Image by Chris McGrath/Getty Images.

Modern hanami parties don't have to happen during the day. Evening gatherings — when the blossom-laden branches are lit by lanterns or soft candlelight — are also very popular (and pretty magical).

Image by Chris McGrath/Getty Images.

Because even on a rainy evening, sakura blossoms put on a show.

Image by Chris McGrath/Getty Images.

Though, to be fair, it can get a little crowded.

In 2015, a record 19.73 million overseas tourists visited cherry blossom hotspots in at least 18 Japanese cities.

Image by Chris McGrath/Getty Images.

Demand for space is so high, some companies wanting to throw hanami parties might send employees down hours before to reserve a spot.

Image by Chris McGrath/Getty Images.

One of the reasons cherry blossoms draw so much attention in Japanese culture is their natural impermanence.

Like all flowers, cherry blossoms are doomed to wither eventually. In Japanese culture this is seen as a metaphor for the ephemerality of life, an idea embodied in the unique concept of mono no aware.

Image by Koichi Kamoshida/Getty Images.

"Mono no aware" loosely translates to English as "an empathy toward things." It's an acknowledgement that all things in life (even life itself) are temporary.

If this realization makes you sad, that's OK. It is supposed to. Part of mono no aware is acknowledging the soft sadness that comes along with our lives. For the sakura blossoms to bloom, they must also die. It is meant to be a wistful sadness, not an overwhelming one.

Image by Kazuhiro Nogi/AFP/Getty Images.

I like to think of mono no aware, and sakura blossoms in general, as a reminder for all of us to be fully present in life's moments as they happen.

To savor the beautiful, the sad, and the fleeting — as both we and they will eventually float away.

"The cure for / this raucous world ... / late cherry blossoms"17th century Japanese poet Kobayashi Issa

Teacher starts period in front of class, turns into a lesson

Teachers are almost always teaching even when it's not in their lesson plan.

Those that were born to be teachers find teachable moments everywhere and one woman found herself in one of those moments. Though this one was likely just a bit more personal than she probably would've liked.

Emily Elizabeth posted a TikTok video about how she found herself in a predicament in front of her classroom full of 10 and 11-year-old kids. The teacher explained that she was noticing a lot of commotion and whispering among the little girls in her class while she was wearing white pants. After reminding the girls to stay on task, the whispering continued, prompting Emily to be more direct.

That's when one of the girls asked to speak with her privately dropping the bomb that no one that gets periods wants to hear in public.

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Mario Mirante criticizes a mom he saw at the park.

TikTokker Mario Mirante is going viral for his video that brings up two significant issues: smartphone addiction and whether people without children have the right to criticize parents.

It all started when Mirante saw a young boy playing alone in the park.

“The kid is just playing quietly, not being annoying. I don’t hear a peep from him; he's just doing his thing on the playground,” Mirante said in a video that has nearly 6000,000 views. “The mom the entire time is on her phone, staring right down at her screen. Doesn’t look up one time.”

The boy climbed up to the top of the slide and called down to his mother, who didn’t even look up from her phone. “I hear, ‘Hey mom, watch. Watch, Mom,’” Mirante recalled. “And at the top of her lungs, shrieking like a Velociraptor, this mother screams, ‘One second!”

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Family

Woman who was pressured to quit her job to raise stepdaughter's baby makes a bold decision

This sparked an important conversation about family responsibility.

via Pixabay

A middle-aged woman holding a baby.

A story that recently went viral on Reddit’s AITA forum asks an important question: What is a parent’s role in taking care of their grandchildren? The story is even further complicated because the woman at the center of the controversy is a stepparent.

The woman, 38, met her husband Sam, 47, ten years ago, when his daughter, Leah, 25, was 15. Five years ago, the couple got married after Leah had moved out to go to college.

Leah’s mom passed away when she was 10.

Last year, Leah became pregnant, and she wanted to keep the baby, but her boyfriend didn’t. After the disagreement, the boyfriend broke up with her. This forced Leah to move back home because she couldn’t afford to be a single parent and live alone on a teacher’s salary.

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Identity

Watch this 104-yr-old woman break the world tandem skydiving record

Dorothy Hoffner tried skydiving for the first time on her 100th birthday and loved it.

Dorothy Hoffner is pure #agingoals.

If you're looking for some aging inspiration, look no further, because Dorothy Hoffner is about to blow your mind.

At 104, Hoffner just became the oldest person to parachute out of an airplane in a tandem skydive. That's right, skydive. At 104 years old—or to be exact, 104 years and 289 days old—beating the previous world record set by a 103-year-old in Sweden in May of 2022.

But it's actually even more impressive than that. It's not like Hoffner is someone who's been skydiving since she was young and just happened to keep on doing it as she got older. She actually didn't go on her first skydiving adventure until her 100th birthday.

On Oct 1, 2023, she joined the team at Skydive Chicago in Ottawa, Illinois, for the world-breaking tandem skydive. Though she uses a walker to get around, she manages the physical toll of plummeting through the air at 10,000+ feet before parachuting to a skidding stop strapped to a certified U.S. Parachute Association (USPA) tandem instructor with impressive ease.

“Let’s go, let’s go, Geronimo!” Hoffner said after she boarded the plane, according to the Chicago Tribune.

Watch her do what many of us would be too terrified to attempt:

The way she rolls right out of that plane cool as a cucumber! Hoffner told the Tribune that on her first skydive, at age 100, she had to be pushed out of the plane. But this time, knowing what she was in for, she took charge with calm confidence.

“Skydiving is a wonderful experience, and it’s nothing to be afraid of," Hoffner shares. "Just do it!”

That's some seriously sage advice from someone who knows firsthand that age really is just a number. Learn more about skydiving with Skydive Chicago here.

Education

Unearthed BBC interview features two Victorian-era women discussing being teens in the 1800s

Frances 'Effy' Jones, one of the first women to be trained to use a typewriter and to take up cycling as a hobby, recalls life as a young working woman in London.

Two Victorian women discuss being teens in the 1800s.

There remains some mystery around what life was like in the 1800s, especially for teens. Most people alive today were not around in the Victorian era when the technologies now deemed old-fashioned were a novelty. In this rediscovered 1970s clip from the BBC, two elderly women reminisce about what it was like being teenagers during a time when the horse and buggy was still the fastest way to get around.

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Can we bring back some 50s fridge features, please?

There are very few things that would make people nostalgic for the 1950s. Sure, they had cool cars and pearl necklaces were a staple, but that time frame had its fair share of problems, even if "Grease" made it look dreamy. Whether you believe your life would've been way more interesting if you were Danny Zuko or not, most would agree their technology was...lacking.

All eras are "advanced" for their time, but imagine being dropped off in the 50s as someone from the year 2023. A recent post by Historic Vids on Twitter of a 1956 commercial advertising a refrigerator, however, has some people thinking that when it came to fridges, maybe they were living in the year 2056. I don't typically swoon over appliances, yet this one has me wondering where I can purchase a refrigerator like this.

Of course, there's no fancy touch screen that tells you the weather and asks how you'd like your ice cubed. It's got more important features that are actually practical.

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