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Hey all, it's your Minister of Culture and History, ahava3233. At any rate, it's late in the month (the full last week too) and elections are coming up in a little less than 24 hours now, so I figured it is about time to hold Tanabata events for July for the week. Let me just give you brief history and overview of this rather neat festival in Japan for now. Events will be coming later throughout the week.

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Tanabata, or in Kanji, 七夕 is the Japanese Star Festival celebrated on various days throughout July and August every year. This is due to the fact that the festival itself, despite being explicitly scheduled on the 7th day of the 7th month of the year is scheduled based on the Japanese Lunisolar calendar, which is not fully in sync with the Gregorian Calendar we use everyday. Imported from China in the 8th Century CE and made popular by the early Edo Period, it has its own unique customs and related folklore.

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Story of the Festival

Tanabata has a related folktale of Star Crossed Lovers that inspired it. The story goes as such; Tentei (天帝), literally the Sky King or a personification of the universe itself has a daughter who goes by the name Orihime (織姫), her name meaning "weaving princess", who wove beautiful clothes by the bank of the Amanogawa (天の川) or the Heavenly River/Milky Way. Her dad really loved all the cloth she wove everyday, but he was concerned she'd never fall in love with anyone if she just worked hard all the time. Thus, Tentei arranged for her to meet Hikoboshi (彦星), meaning "Cow Herder Star", a man who resided and worked on the other side of the river as a cow herder. The two were Star Crossed Lovers and instantly fell in love, marrying shortly afterward. However, after they married the two of them got lazy with their work; Orihime stopped weaving cloth and Hokoboshi let his cattle astray all over. Angry, Tentei then separated the two lovers on either side of the Amanogawa and prohibited them from meeting. Orihime then fell into a depression and asked her father to allow the two of them to meet again. Tentei was sympathetic and allowed his daughter to meet Hokoboshi on the 7th day of the 7th month of the year on the condition that she work hard for the remainder of the year. However, when that day finally came, the two found they could not spend time together due to an inability to cross the river. Orihime cried upon encountering this situation, inciting a flock of kind magpies to help her by making a bridge using their wings.

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Customs

Throughout much of Japan, Japanese observe the Tanabata festival by following a custom of placing paper strips, or Tanzaku (短冊) with wishes written upon them in prose or poetry on bamboo. The bamboo and the strips are usually disposed of in fire or by being set afloat in a river around midnight or the next day.

Additionally throughout Japan, other customs are typically observed relating to Buddhist traditions of Obon, or honoring the spirits of one's ancestors. Organized festivals are held in many places throughout the country where activities such as Tanabata decoration competitions, parades and beauty competitions are held. Furthermore, temporary booths are typically set up during the Tanabata Festival providing refreshments, carnival games and other activites for the pleasure of those there.

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I hope you enjoyed that overview of the festival, the related story and customs practiced in Japan. Throughout the next few days, you should expect to see a few activites related to Tanabata. As MoCH, I already have a few in mind, but if you have further ideas, please feel free to leave them here.

Furthermore, one other MoCH matter has sprung up as of late. There has been interest in reinvigorating an old project to record our country's history, including related articles and communication. If you are an older player, I would appreciate if you could assist me on this matter and give your own account of specific past events as well as any relevant articles you can bring up for case studies. Commissions may be paid for this work as well. See here.

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Places You Need To Be

History Project Discussion
Tanabata Idea Discussion

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Credits

Minister of Culture and History: ahava3233
Head of Graphics: Zodiarque
Unofficial MoCH Consultant: DankChronic

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That's all for now folks, stay tuned for further updates. Feel free to subscribe to my personal newspaper, Gougai/号外/Extra for future MoCH articles this month and for personal articles and reports. Also feel free to leave a comment, thanks!