Misawa's Tanabata Festival

The story of Japan's Tanabata Festival is below:

Separated by the milky way, two star crossed lovers are only able to meet once a year on the seventh day of the seventh month based on the lunisolar calendar.  The legend of Hikoboshi (the star known as Alter) and Orihime (the star known as Vega) has roots in China but has been associated with Japan’s Tanabata festival since the sixth century.

Orihime, the daughter of Emperor Tentei, was a skilled weaver and made lovely clothes for her father.  On day as she sat alongside the the river of heaven ( amanogawa – the milky way) she was overcome with sadness as she had been so busy with her weaving that she hadn’t had time to fall in love.   Tentei, believed to be the ruler of the heavens, witness her woeful state and arranged a marriage for her with Hikoboshi who lived across the river.  The couple was very much in love and were very happy but Orihime was neglecting her weaving.  This angered Tentei so much that he decided to separate the couple putting them back on opposite sides of the river.

Tentei decreed that the couple would only be allowed to see each other on one night each year – on the seventh day of the seventh month.  On that evening a boatman (the moon) comes to ferry Orihime over the river to her beloved Hikoboshi.  But if Orihime has not given her best to her weaving Tentei may make it rain causing the river to flood so the boatman cannot make the trip.  In this case the kasasagi (a group of magpies) may still fly to the milky way to make a bridge for Orihime to cross.

The Tanabata festival (also know as the star festival) celebrates the reuniting of these lovers separated by the milky way and the word tanabata can be translated as “weaving with the loom (bata) placed on the shelf (tana)”.

This version of the story was what I found via Google: HERE

Travis and I went to the festival last Saturday, though it did run all weekend.  We watched them hang some of the wonderful streamers and trees up over the road, witnessed a very intense match of tug-o-war, and ate Turkish food.  Yes, TURKISH.  A very nice group of guys had set up a Donair stand - we had a delicious lunch.

He looks like he's enjoying it - right?

Tanabata is a Japanese tradition wherein people write their wishes on tanzaku papers (colorful, small strips of papers) and hang them on bamboo branches. People also decorate bamboo branches with various kinds of paper decorations and place them outside their houses. The most common decorations are colorful streamers. Streamers are said to symbolize the weaving of threads. Others are toami (casting net), which means good luck for fishing and farming and kinchaku (hand bag), which means wealth. 

 I'm not going to lie, these trees looked like there were either dead, or near death.  Probably not what the festival was going for!  I guess that's what you get when you just randomly place little trees on a meridian for a sunny 28 degree weekend without much water!

 In true Japanese fashion the decorations were colourful and cute.  I found Hello Kitty! right away.

Though Travis preferred the Care Bears.  

We had a great time with the exception of one thing... they piped music into the streets for the festival - the same song, over and over and over and OVER again!