Imagine this: John Lennon’s 70th birthday is coming up this Saturday. The fans will be gathering around the globe in special tributes planned for his birthday. The events are being planned in New York, England and throughout the world to honor the music that he created and the man that he was

In Lennon’s hometown of Liverpool, the Peace Monument will be unveiled on his birthday.

In New York, fans will gather, as they usually do every year on his birthday and on the anniversary of his death, at Strawberry Fields to sing and remember Lennon. Strawberry Fields is the 2.5-acre memorial is in New York’s Central Park, across the street from the Dakota, the building where Lennon before his death, in 1980.

During the evening, there will be a free Central Park screening of “LENNONYC,” a new film by Michael Epstein with concert footage and home movies documenting Lennon’s life in New York after the breakup of the Beatles. The film will air nationally on PBS as part of the American Masters series on November 22.

This year is considered as a big one for Beatles fans as well. It’s been 50 years since the band was formed, 40 years since they split up, 70 years since Lennon was born and 30 years since he was assassinated.

According to ABC news, Lennon’s wife and artist herself, Yoko Ono, 77, commented regarding the Lennon’s death and his legacy, “Well, it was very hard because it was a sudden thing that happened, he wasn’t ill for a long time or anything, it’s just, we were talking before that you know, and, it was very hard. I think I am getting over it in a kind of way, in my own unique way, but it’s still lingering. It’s very interesting, you know, that songs like ‘Gimme Some Truth’ mean a lot now, and of course ‘Give Peace a Chance’. … ‘Imagine’. All his political songs really have a lot of meaning right now for people.”

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Eiko Watanabe is a Blast staff writer in New York

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