Weathergrams

Weathergrams To Hang in Trees for Cherry Blossom Day at the Capitol

The first in-person Cherry Blossom Day at the Capitol will be held on Saturday, March 18 from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. in State Capitol State Park. To help celebrate, local calligraphers, members of Capital Calligraphers in Salem, have penned roughly 100 weathergrams to hang in the cherry trees on the Capitol Mall. 

Weathergrams were invented in the early 1970s by a Portland calligrapher named Lloyd Reynolds. The premise of a weathergrams is that a small biodegradable kraft strip of paper with a short calligraphed poem or haiku will be tied up in a tree and either disintegrate with weather or be taken by birds to make nests. In both cases, the weathergram becomes one with nature. For Cherry Blossom Day, the weathergrams will pose as an interactive activity where attendees can read the poetry in the trees, and, if one calls to them, can take it home. Some people use them for bookmarks or hang them in their personal spaces. 

There are a couple of rules for the making of weathergrams. 1. Japanese vermillion ink (a vivid orange) must be used for the first letter of the poem. 2. A Chinese chop or Japanese hanko is used as a signature at the end of the poem.  

If there are any remaining weathergrams in the trees by April 1, members of the club will remove them. 

Interested in learning more about weathergrams or joining the Capitol Calligraphers? They meet on the first Thursday of each month at Capital Manor in Salem. To learn more about the club visit their website at https://www.capitalcalligraphers.org/ or you can contact them directly at contact@capitalcalligraphers.org.

Learn more about Reynolds here, and download his manual for weathergrams here. For more information on events at the Capitol, call Visitor Services at 503-986-1388 or visit the events page at www.oregoncapitol.com. The Oregon State Capitol Foundation is the presenting sponsor of Cherry Blossom Day at the Capitol. For more information on the foundation, visit https://oregoncapitolfoundation.org/ .