JAPANESE CULTURE AND TRADITIONS
Tanabata, The Star Festival—A Yearly Meeting of Yearning Lovers
Japan’s Tanabata Festival
Tanabata, the Star Festival, is held in Japan every year on July 7 or August 7, depending on local customs. It celebrates the yearly meeting of Orihime, the Weaving Princess, embodied in the star, Vega, and her beloved Hikoboshi, the Cowherd, in the star, Altair.
The Story of Star-Crossed Lovers
Beautiful Orihime was a gifted weaver who spent her days weaving kimonos for the gods beside the Amanogawa, Heaven’s River, the Milky Way. She was so diligently absorbed in her work that there was no time in her life for love.
Yet Orihime yearned for romance. This yearning filled her with despair.
Her father, Tentei, Heaven’s King, pitied his beloved daughter. He arranged for her to marry the hard-working cowherd, Hikoboshi. It was a perfect match.
Orihime and Hikoboshi fell hopelessly in love and spent their days in blissful play— to the complete neglect of their duties.
Before long, gods were complaining to Tentei about the sorry state of their kimonos and the havoc that Hikoboshi’s cows were wreaking as they strayed across the heavens.
