The Tanabata Festival

[TS Sailor Mercury]

*** Legend of the Japanese Star Festival ***

 

[TS Sailor Mercury]

Tanbata or Star festival Legend

The story of Tababata also known as the Star Festival starts out with Orihime who is known as the Weaving Princess, and the daughter of the Tentei or rather known as the Sky King, wove beautiful clothes by the bank of the Amanogawa which would be the Milky Way. Her father loved the cloth that she wove and so she worked very hard every day to weave it. But Orihime was not happy that because of her hard work she could never meet and fall in love with anyone. Concerned about his daughter, Tentei arranged for her to meet Hikoboshi who was the cow herder of the stars who lived and worked on the other side of the Amanogawa. The two met and fell deeply in love and were soon married. But once they were married Orihime stopped weaving the cloth that Tentei loved and Hikoboshi allowed his cows to stray all over Heaven. Tenter became angry and in his anger he separated the two lovers across the Amanogawa and forbade them to meet. Orihime become severely saddened and upset from the seperation and begged her father to let them meet again. Tentei was moved by his daughter’s tears and allowed the two to meet on the 7th day of the 7th month if she worked hard and finished her weaving. The first time they tried to meet they found that they could not cross the river because there was no bridge. Orihime cried so much that a flock of magpies came and promised to make a bridge with their wings so that she could cross the river. It is said that if it rains on Tanabata, the magpies cannot come and the two lovers must wait until another year to meet. If the night is clear and the weather good then the magpies can come to make the bridge. Some say that even in the ray the magpies may sometimes come .

During the Tanabata festival springs of bamboo or even bamboo tree branches are hung with tanzuku, small papers upon people write their wishes. they tie the papers around the bamboo in the hopes that their wishes will come true this is also a New Years tradition as well,