August Tanabata
Yesterday when I was in Shizuoka City, I saw some men putting up decorations in a neighborhood near where I was going.
When I returned along the same street later in the day, I saw many decorations.
I also saw this poster - Tanabata.
My town celebrates Tanabata on July 7th, but Hokkaido and other places, including this neighborhood, celebrate in August. Legend has it that on only this one day of year, the two lovers, weaver star Vega and shepherd star Altair meet in the Milky Way. On this day children write their wishes and hang them on bamboo branches. I love living in Japan with all of its legends and celebrations.
6 comments:
So you get to celebrate two Tanabatas this year!
Hi Pamela very interesting ,i love you explaining to us the different legends and celebrations its all very interesting xx
Your photos really capture the special Japanese flavor of those street decorations. So different from other countries! It's sad that so many of these traditions are faltering because of extreme urbanization, as I just read on Spoon and Tamago (another blog).
best... mae at maefood.blogspot.com
I love the decorations. They're so beautiful and really unique to your culture. I wish we had more decorations for more festivals. Seems we only see street decorations at Christmas.
It's interesting how there are different days for the same festival. Do you now how that came to be?
Interesting legend and so colourful the street looks
Post a Comment