“Not Spring, Love, or Cherry Blossoms (봄, 사랑, 벚꽃 말고) by High4 ft. IU, Sunday, April 11, 2021
Released on April 7, 2014, High4's debut single cowritten and featuring Korea's darling singer IU, "Not Spring, Love, or Cherry Blossoms" has been a staple of K-pop for the early spring. Since I've been in the Southeastern part of Korea, the cherry blossoms (in Korean 벚꽃, Americans typically know them by their Japanese name sakura) have bloomed at the beginning of April and peaked in the first half of the month. In Korea, cherry blossoms are nature's first photo-op of the year. School is usually a little more laidback the week the pink and white blossoms peak, as everyone must quickly get photo before the delicate flowers fall.
I HAVE NO ONE TO HOLD HANDS WITH AND WALK. When I was growing up and dreaming about experiencing far away places, I thought about eating my way across Europe, seeing golden temples in Thailand or Cambodia, and experiencing the beauty of a Japanese spring. I haven't been to Japan in the spring; however, a Korean spring is quite breathtaking. The rain and gloom of mid-March gives way to the blooming of peach and plum trees, then the cherry blossoms. And while it's sad when the cherry blossoms fall, they are only the beginning of all the flowers that bloom until the cosmos in mid autumn. Before Corona, the country held cherry blossom festivals, where large groups of people gathered to walk and take pictures with the country's favorite flower. As this song mentions, the cherry blossom time is when couples are more visible, often dressed as twins in the same outfit--a Korean practice that takes place year round. It's a time when those alone may feel extra lonely, but it's also a time of realization that the youth doesn't last forever. Just as these fragile flowers last for a week, life too is pushing us forward.
IT'S JUST TOO MUCH, THIS SWEET SPRING WIND. This year was a bit of a cherry blossom disaster. 2021 holds the record for the earliest the cherry blossoms have ever bloomed. The weather was so inconsistent, warm then cold and back and forth and rainstorms to finish off some of the blossoms before they could ever bloom. The cherry blossoms 50 feet away started to fall as closer ones started to bloom. Not great for pictures. The peak in my area was some time in the middle of the week and by the weekend the cherry blossoms were washed away by heavy rains. Not great for couples. And Covid restrictions banned gatherings for more than four people. Not great for group photos. As the vaccines for Covid roll out, we can hope for a better cherry blossom season next year. But for CO2 output that is making the winters warmer, we'll need another solution for that.
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