Frank House event celebrates spring's arrival |
| Posted by Administrator (admin) on Apr 23 2008 at 2:43 PM |
Photo by Laura Schemper
Sheila Lewis and her daughter Jessie Hobelmen, a junior elementary education major, both from Kearney, attended the Sakura Tea Party on Saturday.
Lisa Becker
Antelope Staff
This past weekend, students gathered at the Frank House and the Health and Sports Center to celebrate the blooming cherry blossom trees and the arrival of spring.
Rumi Mizuno and Nozomi Fujino presented the event held on April 20 at the Frank House.
The students presented the Japanese custom for the spring season of Sakura viewing. Those who attended enjoyed free Japanese food, as well as activities and stage performances.
"We served Japanese tea and sweets because this is how many people celebrate and appreciate the cherry blossoms," Mizuno said. Mizuno is a junior at UNK from Japan.
"Most of the people in Japan celebrate by having a celebration under the cherry blossom tree; this time we enjoyed the Sakura by watching videos and looking at pictures," Mizuno said.
"We named it 'Sakura Tea Party' because we are going to introduce what Sakura means to the Japanese people and how we celebrate the arrival of spring. The people of Japan believe that Sakura, cherry blossom in Japanese, is the signal of spring," Mizuno said.
Fujino and Mizuno planned the event along with the help of the director of the Frank House, KrisAnn Sullivan.
The cherry blossom is one of the national flowers in Japan. The flower is used in many places like schools, police and other organizations.
"The flower is everybody's favorite," Mizuno said.
Both Mizuno and Fujino are in travel and tourism majors.
"We are working at the Frank House as volunteer workers," Fijuno said.
