Tanabata

Tanabata (Star Festival)

July 7, August 6-8

This Japanese festival is based on a Chinese legend of parted lovers who are identified with two of the brightest stars in the night sky. In the legend, Vega, representing a weaver-princess, is permitted by the king to marry the simple cowherd, Altair. But after they marry, the princess neglects her weaving and the herdsman forgets his cows, so the king separates them, making them live on opposite sides of the River of Heaven, as the Milky Way is known in Japan. On the seventh day of the seventh month, the lovers are able to meet when a flock of magpies makes a bridge across the river. If it's rainy, the lovers have to wait another year.
The festival is observed throughout Japan, with people hanging colorful strips of paper on bamboo branches outside their homes. It is an especially colorful occasion in Sendai (Miyagi Prefecture), where it occurs a month later, on August 6-8. The whole city is decked out with paper streamers and works of origami, the Japanese art of paper folding.
See also Chilseog; Seven Sisters Festival

CONTACTS:
Japan Information Network, Japan Center for Intercultural Communications
2-7-7 Hirakawacho
Chiyodaku
Tokyo, 102-0093 Japan
81-3-3263-5041; fax: 81-3-3230-4107
home.jcic.or.jp
Council for Sendai International Commercial Port Development
16-12, Honcho 2-chome
Aoba-ku
Sendai, 980-8414 Japan
81-2-2265-8181; fax: 81-2-2217-1551
www.sendaicci.or.jp

SOURCES:
AnnivHol-2000, p. 239
BkFest-1937, p. 199
BkHolWrld-1986, Jul 7
DictFolkMyth-1984, p. 540
FolkWrldHol-1999, p. 453
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