Tanabata 七夕 - Two Star Crossed Lovers
Have you ever heard of Tanabata before?
Well, if you are into anime and japanase culture, you may already knew what tanabata is. In this post, we're going to dig into the story behind tanabata.
Tanabata (七夕) which means "star festival "is celebrated on the seventh of the seventh month of the year, which is July, 7. Although some people may also still choose celebrate it on the August for some other historic traditional reasons, but yeah! Today is Tanabata, and it means summer has came!
So, Tanabata lore was originally based from the ancient chinese legend which was then brought to Japan during Nara period in the 6th century.
It tells the story of two stars, Altair and Vega who are finally able to meet on this day (July,7) after being separated by Milky Way for the rest of the year. In this lore, Vega is represented by Princess Orihime, the daughter of Tentei- the Sky King and a very skilled seamstress, who wove beautiful clothes by the heavenly river (milky way).
And Altair is represented by Hikiboshi, a cow herder that lives far on the other side of the milky way.
One day, Orihime that worked tirelessly on weaving the clothes was finally felt lonely and despondent that she may never find love. His father, Tentei, who loved her very dearly then arranged the meeting between Orihime and Hikiboshi. Unexpectedly, the two were fell for each other at the first sight, grew so fond to each other, and got married instantly.
Because their love was too deep, they were too focused on spending time with each other that the two neglected their responsibility, Hikiboshi let his cows stray all over the heaven, and Orihime also stopped weaving.
Tentei who got angered by this then forbade the two to be together and separated them. But Orihime begged her father to allow Hikiboshi to stay. Tentei then decided that the lovers can only meet once a year, on the 7th day of the 7th month- only if Orihime returned to her weaving.
On the first year they were to be reunited, Orihime found it very difficult to cross the milky way. Orihime cried. And suddenly a flog of magpies came to help Orihime across for the lovers to meet.
Unfortunately, if it happens to be raining on the day, it means that Orihime couldn't cross the river since the magpies wouldn't come to help. Rain on Tanabata is also considered unlucky, it is believed as the tears of Orihime and Hikiboshi who can't be reunited.
On Tanabata, many young people will write their wishes on a piece of a long paper in various colors ans hang on the bamboo trees. This tradition is called Tanzaku in Japanese. Many of young people are writing about their wish about finding the love of their life, and of the older married ones going to wish for their marriage to continue to be happy.
My thoughts:
I kinda view this tradition as Japanese Valentine's day with a very beautiful background story and rich cultural aspect. It's nice to know that the japanese are still maintaining this tradition. Well, me myself, aren't going to write for wishes and hang it on the bamboo trees. But if it makes you happy, why not?
Cheers
That's a pretty good outlook! 18/20
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