The Gift of Trees - a centennial celebration
100th Anniversary of Japan’s Gift of Trees Celebrated in Novi
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The City of Novi will be taking part in a centennial celebration of U.S. Japan friendship through a gift of blossoming cherry tress sent to Washington D.C. from Tokyo.
In the year 1912, more than three thousand flowering cherry trees were sent from Japan to the United States as a symbol of the friendship between the countries. In celebration of this 100th anniversary of the Gift of Trees the Embassy of Japan has been working with several partner organizations to reinforce this symbolism of friendship. Together with the Japanese Consulates in the U.S., the Embassy has taken the initiative to promote the planting of flowering cherry trees in a number of cities across the United States, with the hope that these plantings of beautiful cherry blossoms will further deepen Japan-U.S. friendship.
The City of Novi, Michigan will be taking part in this initiative with an event-filled week of plantings and programming celebrating the Japanese culture beginning May 12. The celebration will culminate with an official planting ceremony at the Novi Civic Center on May 19, which will include entertainment by such local Japanese groups as the White Pine Glee Club, Trillium Women’s Choir and Raion Taiko. Additional plantings and events will take place at St. John Providence Park Hospital, the Novi Public Library and Novi Meadows Middle School/Ringo Kai Japanese Saturday School.
As the city with the largest population of Japanese residents in the state of Michigan, and host of an annual Japan Festival, the Consulate General of Japan in Detroit is delighted Novi is among the initial thirty-six cities in the US where plantings have been planned.
The young trees to be planted in this initiative have been provided by the nonprofit conservation organization American Forests. The initiative has been funded by the support from the private sector.
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We invite all organizations hosting Japan-related cultural events and people-to-people exchanges in 2012 to register your event* as an official event celebrating this centennial anniversary, and have use of the official logo shown here. Guidelines for qualifying events, use of logo and application may be found here.
*Please note: application approvals may take two weeks or more; submission one month prior to use is desired