Tanabata Festival

Tanabata Festival

Tanabata Festival is being held every year on July 7th. Every time this festival is approaching, public places such as shopping malls are adorned with bamboo poles tied with pieces of paper known as tanzaku. Why is this festival celebrated in Japan? The festival actually celebrates the meeting of the deities Orihime and Hikoboshi. Orihime is the daughter of the Sky God and is a good weaver, while Hikoboshi is a cattleman. They both got married but they spent too much time together that they neglected their jobs. The Sky God became furious and decided to separate the two across the river banks of the milky way and forbade them to meet. However, Orihime and Hikoboshi became extremely sad and were unable to work. After seeing this, the Sky God negotiated with them that they will be allowed to meet only once a year at the day of Tanabata if they promise to work hard. Thus, the Tanabata festival was born.

How about making a wish to be more skillful by writing it on a tanzaku during Tanabata festival here in Japan?