February 2- Cherry Blossoms

photo courtesy of Orlandothemeparknews.com

My daily Disney devotion on February 2nd is a musically memory, that brought be back to the glory days of Old EPCOT.  I was making Everett dinner and listening to NPR (I do a lot of listening to NPR, that and Disney podcasts!), a segment on China and capitalism.  I truthfully was not paying too much attention to the bulk of the report, I was mostly focused on getting Everett to eat his vegetables, as opposed to throwing them on the ground, when I heard a piece of music that literally caused me to stop in my tracks.  It was the Chinese folk song Sakura, Sakura (which is the Chinese word for cherry blossom).  This music struck an immediate chord, and I recognized instantly where I had heard it before.  It had been part of the original (and in my opinion the best!) Illuminations which premiered in  1988.  The original Illuminations featured all of the World Showcase Pavilions (except for Morocco and Norway), with traditional music from each country and lights on the pavilion.   Sakura, Sakura was the song that played for China, and hearing it took me right back to my childhood, standing pressed up against the railing around the WS lagoon, watching a fireworks spectacular.