Hanami

In the early part of April when the Sakura flowers are in full bloom, Japanese like to admire the beautiful flowers and sip tea as well as eat sweet deserts like mochi a form of sticky rice cake. They like to sit in the park and just look at the beautiful flowers in full bloom. This custom is called Hanami. Hana means flower and mi mean see. So literally translated Hanami means see flowers.

Every year in Japan, when spring comes, the sakura flower blooms. The flowers are pinkish, whitish, and they are exceptionally beautiful. The Japanese people would go to the park and then they would admire the flower drinking Japanese tea and eat deserts. The deserts would usually be of sweet taste in order to complement the wonderful taste of the tea water. The flowers would cover the whole top of the trees creating a shower of white. As the sun breaks out after months of winter, this also signals the arrival of beautiful days to come.

Kado and Ikebana

It is always a common questions amongst foreign to ask what is the difference betweeen Ikebana and Kado since both of them mean flower arrangement. Kado means the entire process of actually arranging the flower using various techniques etc. Sometimes Ikebana is the subset of Kado. Ikebana is used when we are describing a particular flower arrangement or when we are referring to a flower's exhibition. It usually means a display of flowers while the other word kado refers to the art of flower arrangement in its entirety. However, in foreign countries, these two words are used interchangeably, thus leading to greater confusion.