On Sunday, April 21, the Charles B. Wang Center at Stony Brook University (SBU) celebrated the blooming of Sakura — known in the U.S. as Cherry Blossoms — and the arrival of spring with the annual Cherry Blossom Festival. Providing attendees with a wide variety of traditional Japanese cultural activities, the festival is a prominent cultural event for Long Island’s Asian American and Japanese American communities.
Cherry blossom festivals (Sakura Matsuri) are a century-old tradition in Japan, where they are celebrated every year with the arrival of spring. Co-produced by the Japan Center at Stony Brook University and the Ryu Shu Kan Japanese Arts Center, the Wang Center’s festival keeps this important cultural tradition alive for the Japanese community on Long Island. Anyone who visits the Center between late April and early May will be greeted by multiple Cherry Blossoms in full bloom — their deep-pink little flowers coloring the building’s facet.
SBU Taiko Tides, a student-led drumming group, kicked off the festival at noon with a taiko drum performance outside. This was followed by a handful of performances throughout the afternoon, including a martial arts demonstration, Koto plays, and Japanese traditional dances. Besides watching these performances, attendees could participate in an Ikebana flower arrangement with Sogetsu Ryu Ikebana, origami paper foldings with SBU’s Origami club, a hands-on bonsai workshop with the Long Island Bonsai Society, and a Go tournament hosted by SBU’s Go Club.
Another key element of the Cherry Blossom festival are cosplayers, who flooded the halls of the Wang Center in their favorite manga character costumes. CosplayNYC Magazine organized a cosplay festival in which they crowned the best costumes of the day.
Cherry blossoms have a very short lifespan, symbolizing ephemerality in Japanese culture. Similarly, the Wang Center’s festival is vibrant but fleeting. Both will return on April 27, 2025.
https://www.stonybrook.edu/commcms/wang/
