Cherry blossom lingo: cherry blossoms at night

Perhaps the best known cherry blossom term is the phrase that is used to cherry blossoms as seen at night. That or the term they use for a cherry blossom festival, I would guess. They are certainly among the first cherry blossom terms I learned when I moved here. 

Cherry blossoms at night

The Japanese term used for cherry blossoms at night is yozakura. Yo means night and zakura as you probably know already is the Japanese for cherry blossom. But you may be wondering why it is zakura and not sakura. Zakura is used in compound words. In other words, if the sakura comes after another word it is pronounced zakura.

In order for people to enjoy cherry blossoms at night, many locations light up there trees during the period that they bloom. They usually light them up with lanterns and /or flood lights or a mix of both. But occasionally you can see more colorful displays, such as the one pictured below in Yoshimi, where they use different color lights that change every couple of minutes. A lot of the cherry blossom festivals with light up have food trucks on site at night. Some even have tables and chairs under the lit trees so you can enjoy hanami at night. It is a different vibe to during the day and it is nice to experience both.

Have you been to see some yozakura this year?