Around Town

Maybe you’ve jogged by it and never quite knew why it’s there: thousands of colorful tulips in bloom between the Iwo Jima Memorial and Arlington National Cemetery.

The tulips are planted on the grounds of the Netherlands Carillon, a gift given to the United States on behalf of the Dutch people in appreciation for our sacrifices during World War II. It was dedicated on May 5, 1960, to mark the fifteenth anniversary of the Netherlands’ liberation from the Nazis.


Around Town

There’s a section of Arlington National Cemetery, near the Iwo Jima Memorial, that contains graves unlike any other. The graves belong not to soldiers, but to freed slaves who lived on the grounds after the Civil War, in a thriving “Freedman’s Village.”

The village was home to more than 1,100 former slaves, including the black abolitionist Sojourner Truth, who spent a year there, on what was once the estate of Gen. Robert E. Lee’s family.


Events

If you want to escape to solemnity of this Good Friday, the famous Raspberry Brothers will be razzing on the 1980s classic “Karate Kid.” Think “Mystery Science Theater 3000,” but live and in person. That’s happening at 9:45 tonight at the Arlington Drafthouse (2903 Columbia Pike).

On Saturday at 10:00 a.m., the Barcroft community will be holding its annual Easter egg hunt at 800 S. Buchanan Street. Attendees are advised to bring a baked good.