It is said that there was once a seamstress, Orihime, daughter to the God of Heaven. Each day, she artfully wove beautiful clothing for the other deities in the sky. She worked hard, so hard, she thought she would never find love. Seeing her upset, her father introduced her to a cowherder named Hikoboshi. The two quickly fell in love and were married.
However, the young couple, enamoured with each other, began neglecting their heavenly duties. Orihime stopped weaving and Hikoboshi’s cows wandered freely across the heavens. And so, Orihime’s father intervened. He separated the two lovers to different sides of the Amanogawa, or, as it may sound more familiar to you, the Milky Way.
Orihime was devastated. So much so, her tears moved her father to change his mind. He called to the King of the Magpies to ask his kin to make a bridge so the two could meet. If they worked hard the rest of the year, magpies would fly up and create a bridge spanning from one bank to the other and the young couple could meet up one day every year, on the 7th day of the 7th lunar month.
Such is one of the legends to the origin of the Tanabata, or Star festival, in Japan.
The celebrations
The Tanabata festival is an annual summer event widely celebrated across Japan. It is one of the largest festivals to take place in the country, and one of the five main seasonal events to take place throughout the year. Each of these events is represented by a different plant, and Tanabata’s signature flora is bamboo.
The biggest and most famous celebration is the Sendai Tanabata Matsuri in Sendai city. Around the 6-8th of August each year, the city comes alive with vibrant colours. Thousands of streamers in all the colours of the rainbow decorate the streets and shops. Most of these 3-5-meter-long creations are hand-crafted by local shops, schools and city clubs using washi paper, traditional Japanese paper, and bamboo.
Alongside the streamers, you can also see smaller paper decorations, each with its own symbolic wish for the future. This includes cranes, for long life and health; kimonos to ward off ill health; purses, for good business, and many others. However, the most famous of these are the tanzaku: paper strips hung from bamboo poles or on the streamers themselves. On these, people write individual wishes and hopes for the future.
Of course, it is not only the decorations which attract the festival’s visitors. The various stage and music performances, traditional foods, and fireworks displays that take place also draw attention.
History
The legend of Orihime and Hikoboshi is the most popular rendition of how the festival came to be. Although the couple’s names are Japanese, the original tale dates back to Chinese mythology. The two lovers are represented by the stars Vega and Altair, as these stars were thought to represent sewing and agriculture respectively. It is around the 7th day of the 7th lunar month that these two stars shine at their brightest on the Milky Way, and so this is the day the two lovers can bridge the distance and meet once more.
While first introduced to Japan in the Heian period (794-1185), this occasion was mainly celebrated in the aristocratic circles of society. The Tanabata festival only became popular among the general population during the Edo period (1600-1868).
It was during this time that many of the traditional aspects of the festival began to grow too, such as the tanzaku and handicrafts. Some other traditions are less practiced today. For example, people during the Edo period would fill a basin of water and set it out in the garden at night. Creating ripples to the water surface would distort the sky’s reflection and overlap the stars, allowing the lovers to meet.
Will the star-crossed lovers meet?
With the changing of the calendar to solar rather than lunar at the end of the 19th century, the date of the festival changed also. The 7th of July, when the festival was moved to, would fall in the rainy season, with clouds and rains often blocking the view of the Milky Way.
The legend tells us that when it rains, the magpies are unable to fly up and create the bridge to reunite Orihime and Hikoboshi, so the two must wait another year to meet.
The National Astronomical Observatory of Japan announced the date for “traditional Tanabata” in 2001, once again setting it to the lunar calendar. However, it is still traditional to wish for good weather on the tanzaku, and pray for Orihime and Hikoboshi to reunite once more.
Whether you are a Sendai local or a foreign visitor, there is a lot to do at the Star festival. From enjoying the festivities and food, to writing your own wish on a tanzaku and hanging it on a bamboo branch. So, should you find yourself in Japan during the Tanabata festival, won’t you wish for good weather?