Tanabata Festival
Tanabata is celebrated in my area of Japan on July 7th. Other areas, such as Hokkaido and Sendai, observe this event on August 7th.
Tanabata is a famous summer festival, which has been celebrated in Japan since the 700's. The story behind Tanabata is that the weaving princess Orihime and the cowherder Hikoboshi met, fell madly in love, and married. Their love was the only thing that mattered and they neglected their work duties. Orihime's father, the king of the heavens, was so angry that he separated them to opposite sides of the Milky Way. Orihime became the star Vega and Hikoboshi became the star Altair.Orihime was heartbroken and cried day and night, which did not get her back to her duties of weaving. Her father was moved by the tears and allowed the couple to meet once a year at the MIlky Way on Tanabata.
In my town, there is a four day festival, which falls in the rainy season. This year it has been very hot, but no rain fell on the festival days. I went to the festival mid-day on Friday and there were no crowds. In the past, I have gone on Saturday when it is very crowded. The festival is held on two streets. One is a covered walkway street, called Ginza. The other is a regular street that is closed to traffic during the festival.
There are many vendors selling "festival food". I saw the fried seasoned spaghetti noodles I like, but I did not buy them.
All along the covered walkway street, there were decorations hanging from the top.
As I was getting ready to take this picure, a baby popped out.
It was amazing to be able to walk without bumping into anyone or anyone bumping into me! If I go next year, I am definitely going on Friday!
The regular street had the decorations on platforms in the middle of the street. If it started raining, they could move the decorations easily.
One of the things to do on Tanabata, is to write your wish on a paper and tie it to this decorated bamboo branch.
This is the tanabata shrine.
This town has a professional soccer team, so there is evidence of this everywhere, all over town.
This soccer ball was covered with hand written messages.
After seeing all the decorations, I walked home and was quite happy. I took a long walk, I didn't spend any money or eat any junk food. It was good!
4 comments:
This sounds like a beautiful legend and a wonderful festival -- so colorful and full of fun! I loved every photo!
On your long walk you had much to see. Many of the decorations celebrate local teams, characters and geographical features. I love it!
Did you write down your wish?
What a colourful festival, and it really looks surprisingly empty. I would not have been able to resist all the festival food, myself!
At kindergartens and elementary schools, large bamboo leaves were prepared, and I wrote my wish on the strips of paper that were handed out.
It was fun to attach origami decorations to the bamboo leaves. If you were me, what kind of wish would you write on a strip of paper?
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