Sarah Bass Photos
The magnificent cherry blossoms have begun their annual display of natural beauty in Wooster Square Park.
That usually means that Wooster Square comes together for a festival to celebrate. Because of the pandemic, that festival is being postponed again this year, until next April.
But of course that hasn’t stopped the trees from blooming — and from attracting not just neighbors but visitors on annual pilgrimages to soak in the beauty.
In 1973, the New Haven Historic Commission, the parks department and neighbors planted 72 Yoshino Japanese cherry blossom trees around Wooster Square’s perimeter. Every April since, as petals cover the sidewalks like a thawing, pink frost, the neighborhood has celebrated spring’s arrival with a festival in the trees’ honor. Except for this April and last April, when the Covid-19 pandemic put a kibosh on such gatherings.
Read about previous years’ festivals here, here and here.
The photos in this story were taken on Sunday.
The Annual Wooster Square Cherry Blossom Festival is a magnificent outpouring of community, generosity and plain good old good times and it will be back next year, with bells on.
In the meantime, we have these beautiful trees and blossoms to remind us that beauty persists even through tragedy, that we can keep the warmth in our hearts for another full year, and that next year, when the blossoms are out we will all be back also, to share our gratitude and sense of community in Wooster Square Park, that gem, in New Haven, that complicated, great big little city.
Shine on, New Haven!
Shine on, WSP!
Shine on, Cherry Blossoms!