The Japanese are a nature-loving people, and frequently give practical expression to their feelings by taking a holiday simply for “flower-viewing.” At the proper season the entire nation, so to speak, takes a day off, and turns out on a big picnic to see the plum blossoms, or the cherry blossoms, or the maples, or the chrysanthemums. No utilitarian views of the value of time or miserly conceptions of the expense of such outings prevail for a moment; for the Japanese are worshippers of beauty rather than of the “almighty dollar.” A few pennies on such occasions bring many pleasures; and business interests are sacrificed at the shrine of beauty. And, as one or more flowers are blooming every month, because twigs, leaves, grasses, etc., are included in the scope of the word hana, there is almost a continuous round of such picnics during the year. It is our purpose, therefore, to arrange a calendar of flowers popular each month.

At the very outset we are confronted with a chronological difficulty in presenting this subject to Western readers. For the programme of Japanese floral festivals was originally arranged on the basis of the old lunar calendar so long in vogue in Japan. By that calendar the New Year came in at varying dates from about the 21st of January up to the 19th of February; in 1903 it fell on Thursday, January 29; so that it is from three to seven weeks behind the Occidental solar calendar. And yet, when Japan adopted the Gregorian calendar, many of these festivals were transferred to the “New Style” without regard to the awful anachronism that necessarily followed.

For instance, the following is a floral programme according to the “Old Style”:—

Now, the pine is chosen for the 1st month (O. S.) on account of the prominent part that it plays in the New Year’s decorations, but when the new year begins the first of January, that calendar suffers serious dislocation, because all of the other flowers cannot be moved a whole month.

A similar confusion arises in connection with the great festival of the “autumn full moon,” in which certain grasses also figured. By the lunar calendar it fell about the 15th day of the 8th month, which never comes in the Western 8th month, August. It came in 1902 on September 18; and 1903 it will not come until early in October! It may now be readily seen how difficult it is in Japan to run on schedule time!

But, taking all these difficulties into consideration, and harmonizing them so far as possible, we have been able to construct the following modern Japanese floral calendar:—