WHAT: If you want to be in the pink next month, you might head to Washington, D.C., when the nation's capital welcomes the arrival of spring with the National Cherry Blossom Festival.

Cultural events include a lantern-lighting ceremony on March 29, the Cherry Blossom 10-mile run, a kite festival, parade, music and dance performances, and a fireworks spectacular, April 11.

BACKGROUND: The festival commemorates the 1912 gift of 3,000 cherry trees from Mayor Yukio Ozaki of Tokyo to the city of Washington, honoring the friendship between the United States and Japan.

In a simple ceremony on March 27, 1912, first lady Helen Herron Taft and Viscountess Chinda, wife of the Japanese ambassador, planted the first two trees from Japan on the north bank of the Tidal Basin in West Potomac Park.

In 1915, the United States government reciprocated with a gift of flowering dogwood trees to the people of Japan. A group of American schoolchildren re-enacted the initial planting in 1927 and the first "festival" was held in 1935, sponsored by civic groups in the nation's capital.

First lady Lady Bird Johnson accepted 3,800 more trees in 1965. In 1981, Japanese horticulturists were given cuttings from our trees to replace some cherry trees in Japan that had been destroyed in a flood.

The festival was expanded to two weeks in 1994 to celebrate during the trees' blooming. Today, more than a million people visit Washington, D.C., each year to admire the blossoming cherry trees and enjoy events in the nation's capital.

IF YOU GO: The National Cherry Blossom Festival is March 28 to April 12 at the Tidal Basin and East Potomac Park.

Though the average "peak bloom" is pegged as April 4, horticulturist experts shy away from giving an accurate forecast much more than 10 days beforehand.

Peak bloom is defined as the day in which 70 percent of the blossoms of the Yoshino Cherry trees that surround the Tidal Basin are open. That date varies from year to year, depending on weather conditions.

Visitors can take bicycle tours, walking tours or hop aboard a free shuttle. TourMobile Sightseeing operates shuttles from the Hains Point parking area to the Tidal Basin terminus area in the middle of the blossoms. Shuttles run every 20 to 30 minutes from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. daily throughout the two-week festival. www.nationalcherryblossomfestival.org.