"Context namespace element 'annotation-config' and its parser class" message by Spring Framework

Issue

• org.springframework.beans.factory.BeanDefinitionStoreException is thrown on Tomcat 8
• In usage of JDK 1.8 with Tomcat 8, BeanDefinitionStoreException is thrown due to Context namespace element 'annotation-config' and its parser class [org.springframework.context.annotation.AnnotationConfigBeanDefinitionParser] are only available on JDK 1.5 and higher
• the following similar message can be seen in tomcat.log

 ERROR localhost-startStop-1 org.apache.catalina.core.ContainerBase.[Catalina].[localhost].[/<application-context-name>] - org.apache.catalina.core.StandardContext.listenerStart Exception sending context initialized event to listener instance of class org.springframework.web.context.ContextLoaderListener
 org.springframework.beans.factory.BeanDefinitionStoreException: Unexpected exception parsing XML document from ServletContext resource [/WEB-INF/applicationContext.xml]; nested exception is java.lang.IllegalStateException: Context namespace element 'annotation-config' and its parser class [org.springframework.context.annotation.AnnotationConfigBeanDefinitionParser] are only available on JDK 1.5 and higher
    at org.springframework.beans.factory.xml.XmlBeanDefinitionReader.doLoadBeanDefinitions(XmlBeanDefinitionReader.java:420)
    at org.springframework.beans.factory.xml.XmlBeanDefinitionReader.loadBeanDefinitions(XmlBeanDefinitionReader.java:342)
    at org.springframework.beans.factory.xml.XmlBeanDefinitionReader.loadBeanDefinitions(XmlBeanDefinitionReader.java:310)
    at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.AbstractBeanDefinitionReader.loadBeanDefinitions(AbstractBeanDefinitionReader.java:143)
    at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.AbstractBeanDefinitionReader.loadBeanDefinitions(AbstractBeanDefinitionReader.java:178)
    at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.AbstractBeanDefinitionReader.loadBeanDefinitions(AbstractBeanDefinitionReader.java:149)
    at org.springframework.web.context.support.XmlWebApplicationContext.loadBeanDefinitions(XmlWebApplicationContext.java:124)
    at org.springframework.web.context.support.XmlWebApplicationContext.loadBeanDefinitions(XmlWebApplicationContext.java:92)
    at org.springframework.context.support.AbstractRefreshableApplicationContext.refreshBeanFactory(AbstractRefreshableApplicationContext.java:123)
    at org.springframework.context.support.AbstractApplicationContext.obtainFreshBeanFactory(AbstractApplicationContext.java:422)
    at org.springframework.context.support.AbstractApplicationContext.refresh(AbstractApplicationContext.java:352)
    at org.springframework.web.context.ContextLoader.createWebApplicationContext(ContextLoader.java:255)
    at org.springframework.web.context.ContextLoader.initWebApplicationContext(ContextLoader.java:199)
    at org.springframework.web.context.ContextLoaderListener.contextInitialized(ContextLoaderListener.java:45)
    at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardContext.listenerStart(StandardContext.java:4777)
    at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardContext.startInternal(StandardContext.java:5211)
    at org.apache.catalina.util.LifecycleBase.start(LifecycleBase.java:150)
    at org.apache.catalina.core.ContainerBase.addChildInternal(ContainerBase.java:725)
    at org.apache.catalina.core.ContainerBase.addChild(ContainerBase.java:701)
    at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardHost.addChild(StandardHost.java:714)
    at org.apache.catalina.startup.HostConfig.deployWAR(HostConfig.java:917)
    at org.apache.catalina.startup.HostConfig$DeployWar.run(HostConfig.java:1701)
    at java.util.concurrent.Executors$RunnableAdapter.call(Executors.java:511)
    at java.util.concurrent.FutureTask.run(FutureTask.java:266)
    at java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor.runWorker(ThreadPoolExecutor.java:1142)
    at java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor$Worker.run(ThreadPoolExecutor.java:617)
    at java.lang.Thread.run(Thread.java:745)
Caused by: java.lang.IllegalStateException: Context namespace element 'annotation-config' and its parser class [org.springframework.context.annotation.AnnotationConfigBeanDefinitionParser] are only available on JDK 1.5 and higher
    at org.springframework.context.config.ContextNamespaceHandler$1.parse(ContextNamespaceHandler.java:65)
    at org.springframework.beans.factory.xml.NamespaceHandlerSupport.parse(NamespaceHandlerSupport.java:69)
    at org.springframework.beans.factory.xml.BeanDefinitionParserDelegate.parseCustomElement(BeanDefinitionParserDelegate.java:1297)
    at org.springframework.beans.factory.xml.BeanDefinitionParserDelegate.parseCustomElement(BeanDefinitionParserDelegate.java:1287)
    at org.springframework.beans.factory.xml.DefaultBeanDefinitionDocumentReader.parseBeanDefinitions(DefaultBeanDefinitionDocumentReader.java:135)
    at org.springframework.beans.factory.xml.DefaultBeanDefinitionDocumentReader.registerBeanDefinitions(DefaultBeanDefinitionDocumentReader.java:92)
    at org.springframework.beans.factory.xml.XmlBeanDefinitionReader.registerBeanDefinitions(XmlBeanDefinitionReader.java:507)
    at org.springframework.beans.factory.xml.XmlBeanDefinitionReader.doLoadBeanDefinitions(XmlBeanDefinitionReader.java:398)
    ... 26 more