봄이 왔어요 (bom-i wasseoyo)! Spring has sprung! What do you think of when you think of spring? In Korea, spring is the most highly anticipated season, and it comes with the blooming of a single flower: the 벚꽃 (beot-kkot), or cherry blossom. Today, I’m going to tell you about cherry blossom season in South Korea.
Before the arrival of spring, cherry blossom trees look much the same as most other trees: green in summer; red, yellow, and orange in fall; and barren in winter. This is because cherry blossom trees are deciduous, meaning that they shed their leaves in the fall. In early spring, however, the cherry blossoms bloom once again, and what was once a scatter of empty branches bursts with puffs of white and pink petals. After one to two weeks, the petals fall, leaving busy sidewalks and city streets scattered with flowers. From afar, it sometimes looks as though it’s snowing!
My first encounter took place just over a week ago, when the trees lining 무심천 (Musimcheon), the river in my home city of 청주 (Cheongju), began to blossom. The sight took my breath away. What had once been empty space was now bursting with flowers, and I couldn’t believe it was real.
