Tanabata

On Wednesday, we organized a Tanabata event in AP House. So, I got to learn some interesting things about the Japanese Tanabata festival.

First, a short introduction. Tanabata is written as 七夕　in Japanese. The first kanji is "seven" and the second one is "evening". It means "evening of the 7th". It celebrates the meeting of two stars on the 7th day of the 7th month. The custom is to write your wishes on a piece of origami paper and hang it on a bamboo tree. You can also make other shapes such as paper cranes or hearts.

Image taken from http://japansocietyny.blogspot.jp/2012/07/tanabata-tutorial-seven-ways-to-wish.html

There's a story behind it and it goes like this. Once, there was a princess who was very good at weaving. Her father was the Sky King. She worked hard every day at the bank of the heavenly river (which is the Milky Way, by the way). But at the same time, she was very sad because she didn't have time to fall in love. So, the King arranged a meeting with the cow herder star. (Why was a star herding cows? Maybe it paid well in those days.) It was love at first sight and soon after, they got married. (Well, that escalated quickly..) But after the marriage, they were so in love that they neglected their jobs. (Please don't ask me what they were doing all day long.) So, the King got very angry and decided to punish them. The two lovers were separated with the heavenly river between them. The princess was very sad (again) and the King took pity on her. Finally, he agreed to let them meet on the 7th day of the 7th month every year. And that's the story of how Tanabata came to be.

The above is a shortened and simplified version of the story I read in Wikipedia. :)

Carly Rae Jepsen threw a wish in the well but I hung a wish on the tree.

She said, "Don't ask me I'll never tell" and same goes for me too.. keke..

Anyway, it would be good if it comes true... :)