Lehigh Valley – JAJAJA<\/a>, which stands for Japanese in America, Japanese Americans, Japanese Aficionados.<\/p>\nThe festival celebrates the culture of Bethlehem’s Japanese sister city, Tondabayashi, and it’s put on each year by the Bethlehem-Tondabayashi Sister City Commission Chair.<\/p>\n
Organizers tell 69 News this tale of two cities goes back more than six decades, and the tea house and trees were all donated by Tondabayashi.<\/p>\n
While Bethlehem’s cherry blossoms are still blooming, the festival is springing up this Saturday, signifying new beginnings.<\/p>\n
“The cherry blossom festival is a time of reflection,” John Rivera, chair of the Bethlehem-Tondabayashi Sister City Commission Chair and Tea Master, said. “Who I was during the wintertime, and who I’m looking to be in the future.”<\/p>\n
“Really celebrate the new season and the renewal of life and coming out of the winter,” Sankary said.<\/p>\n
And while the flowers still have room to bloom, the festival is “petal”-ing plenty of activities to enjoy.<\/p>\n
The event boasts a tea ceremony, kids games and cultural exchange.<\/p>\n
“When people come to cherry blossom festivals,” they do this thing called hanami,” Rivera said, “which is like cherry blossom viewings and it’s a kind of celebration period.”<\/p>\n
Folks can learn calligraphy and origami.<\/p>\n
“Traditional and more modern takes on it,” Rivera said. “Those are usually pretty wonderful for children and adults.”<\/p>\n
Japanese taiko drumming will also brighten the festival.<\/p>\n
“Taiko has a way of lifting people’s spirits,” Rivera said. “They have a presence you can’t really replace.”<\/p>\n
The festival is free. Some snacks and tea cost just $1 each.<\/p>\n
“This is us giving back to the community,” Rivera said, “and honestly, if you do bring five dollars, you get a whole world’s worth of experiences.”<\/p>\n
The festival is in full bloom this Saturday from 12 p.m. to 4 p.m.<\/p>\n
To learn more, head here: https:\/\/www.bethlehemsistercity.org\/cherry-blossom-festival<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"BETHLEHEM, Pa. – The cherry blossoms are in full bloom for the 12th year over in Bethlehem. The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":148243,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[153,155,154,67553,65147,157],"class_list":["post-148242","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-bethlehem","tag-bethlehem","tag-bethlehem-headlines","tag-bethlehem-news","tag-cherry-blossom","tag-cherry-blossom-festival","tag-lehigh-valley"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/148242","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=148242"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/148242\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/148243"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=148242"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=148242"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=148242"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}