Exhibits containing more than 300,000 chrysanthemums of different kinds have been created at the exhibition called Imperial Chrysanthemums in Kyiv. Most of them are of autumn colors.
The exhibition was opened with a concert of Japanese, Chinese, and Korean songs and dances. Origami and calligraphy master-classes were also held. Everyone could try to write the hieroglyph “harmony” on rice paper using a brush and ink (which is quite complicated). By the way, the opening concert also had performances of children aikido and karate groups of the Center for Eastern Culture MICI, however, compositions created of chrysanthemums were the high spot of the exhibition.
Nobody remembers when our ancestors started breeding chrysanthemums. Their images are still found by archeologists on pottery fragments, in ornaments of ancient buildings and on coins. We remind our readers that chrysanthemums are thought to originate from China. At the very beginning chrysanthemums were only yellowish. However, as a result of plant breeders’ work, flowers of different colors and shapes appeared.
In Japan these magic flowers appeared back in the 4th century. Since then the land of the rising sun has been their second homeland. There are a lot of legends about chrysanthemums’ magical qualities. Thus it was believed that one could prepare the elixir of life from their sap. However, you can only succeed if you pick up chrysanthemums with pure heart and kind thoughts.
The Chrysanthemum (kiku) is the sun. According to the Japanese belief, the sun gave birth to the Japanese people yamato. The picture of chrysanthemum (the imperial chrysanthemum has 16 petals) is the main part of the Japanese state symbol and Order of the Chrysanthemum is the highest state award in Japan.
Chrysanthemums were brought to England in 1676 by a Dutchman named Reede. In 1789 a sailor Pierre Blanchir brought this flower to Paris from Japan. Due to the efforts of a French gardener Bernet the chrysanthemum got its imperial look. Chrysanthemums of white color are believed to symbolize chastity and innocence.
In Vietnam chrysanthemums are considered a symbol of chastity and pure soul and in Japan they symbolize success and luck.
By the way, at the flower exhibit in Paris in 1889 they presented the chrysanthemum called Willis. It looked like a sunflower and its diameter was 41 centimeters!
Chrysanthemums are unpretentious. They can survive even under the snow. There have been bred more than 10,000 kinds of chrysanthemums of different colors and shapes by now. Some of them remind frost, some look like willow leaves and some make think of birds’ feathers… These autumn flowers strike with the diversity of their colors: white and yellow, golden and peach, brassy, pink and red, which you can enjoy till October 21.
