Tanabata (七夕), the "Star Festival," is celebrated in summer, most commonly on the seventh of July, when people write wishes on strips of coloured paper and tie them to branches of bamboo. Behind the decorations lies one of East Asia's most enduring love stories: two stars, separated across the sky, allowed to meet only once a year.
The story of the two stars
The festival comes from a Chinese legend carried to Japan over a thousand years ago. Orihime, a weaver princess (the star Vega), and Hikoboshi, a cowherd (the star Altair), fell so deeply in love that they neglected their duties. In anger the sky god separated them on opposite banks of the Milky Way (天の川, amanogawa, "the river of heaven"), permitting them to cross and meet only on the seventh night of the seventh month, and only if the skies are clear. Rain on Tanabata is said to be the river swelling to keep them apart for another year.
Wishes on bamboo
The signature custom is writing wishes on tanzaku (短冊), small strips of coloured paper, and hanging them along with paper ornaments on stalks of bamboo (笹, sasa), which are later set adrift on a river or burned to send the wishes off. Streamers, paper cranes, and nets are folded and strung as decorations, each with its own meaning. Whole cities hold enormous Tanabata festivals draped in thousands of these paper streamers: the one in Sendai, held in August, is the most famous, its shopping arcades buried under cascades of colour. Schools and homes put up their own small bamboo, heavy with the handwritten hopes of children.
Words & idioms to take away
Idioms & proverbs to carry away
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短冊 (tanzaku): the narrow strip of coloured paper on which a wish is written and tied to bamboo; also used for writing short poems.
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天の川 (amanogawa): "the river of heaven," the Japanese name for the Milky Way, the celestial river that keeps the two lovers apart.