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Cultural Spotlight |
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Tanabata |
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Entrance to a Shinto shrine in Miyagi Prefecture decoracted for Tanabata.
Image (c) Nishi Yasufumi/ (c) JNTO |
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Tanzaku (colorful strips of paper) affixed to an arrangement of dwarf bamboo.
Image (c) Sozaijiten |
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Parade celebrating Tanabata in Miyagi Prefecture.
Image (c) Nishi Yasufumi/ (c) JNTO |
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The summer festival of Tanabata is derived from the story of Kengyu (the Ox-herd Boy) and Orihime (the Weaver Girl), a legend deeply rooted in the folklore of both Japan and the other regions of East Asia. According to the legend, the Ox-herd Boy and the Weaver Girl were a pair of young lovers who lived in the heaven realm. Deeply in love, they spent all their time together and ignored their duties of tending to the celestial herds and weaving. Because of this they were separated by the King of Heaven and only allowed to see each other on the seventh day of the seventh month. On that day a flock of magpies forms a bridge across the River of Heaven, allowing the two to meet. The legend itself derives from the astronomical event of the stars Altair (representing the Ox-herd Boy) and Vega (the Weaver Girl) reaching their highest points and meeting in the summer night's sky.
Today, Tanabata is celebrated in a variety of regional festivals held all over Japan. The festival is usually held on July 7th, although in areas of northern Japan it is also celebrated on August 7th, in observance with the old lunar calendar. One of the most common ways to mark the day is with a tasteful arrangement of dwarf bamboo beautifully decorated with colorful slips of paper, called tanzaku. People write their wishes on tanzaku in hope that they will come true. Festivals of all sizes are held at Shinto shrines and other town centers throughout the country. Sendai, a city in the northern prefecture of Miyagi, is famous for holding one of the largest and most colorful Tanabata celebrations in Japan.
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