Tanabata Story (short version)
The Japanese Tanabata Matsuri (Star Festival) is based on a Chinese legend and elements of a Japanese myth. The festival traces its origins to a legend that a Cowherd Star (Altair) and Princess Weaver Star (Vega), were lovers separated by the Milky Way. Vega and Altair met and fell in love, which pleased everyone. However, Vega spent so much time being with Altair that she began to neglect her weaving work. This upset her emperor father and he decided to separate the two on opposite sides of the Milky Way, to prevent them from meeting except for once a year on the seventh day of the seventh month.
Nowadays, children and adults write their wishes on narrow strips of colored paper and hang them, along with other paper ornaments, on bamboo branches placed in the backyards or entrances of their homes. They then pray hard that their wishes will come true.
Traditionally Tanabata is held on the evening of July 7. However, cities usually celebrate Tanabata for three days, sometime between July 7 and August 7.
Painting depicting Tanabata Story
Sunday, July 18, 2010: Hachinohe Tanabata Festival
Hachinohe Tanabata Matsuri was a three-day event that usually occurs on the third weekend in July. Taxi drivers at Misawa Train Station told me that Friday night’s opening parade kicked off at 18:00 but Saturday and Sunday’s festivities occurred between 12:00 and 20:00. Kyle was out of town on Friday and I was contemplating taking two children to a festival by myself because it was advertised as a 5-minute walk from Hon-Hachinohe train station. Yeah right!! Off topic: Japanese roads are not on a grid system. They often wind around the natural landscape and lead to dead-end streets (as I’ve learned the hard way).
Anyway, I decided to wait until Sunday for Kyle so we could go as a family. I realized I received bad info from the taxi drivers. Booths started setting up around 12 noon. When we arrived at 13:00, not much was around, so while waiting for the matsuri to begin, we escaped the sun’s heat by ducking into several department stores, discovered an Indian restaurant, let kids play, and watched a Japanese hippy fashion show, and visited a beetle exhibit.
I cannot believe that this area of town is not mentioned in any of the Misawa Air Base leaflets because there are quite a few department stores all conveniently packed on one street. The next time we come here on a non-busy day, I’ll have to draw it in my journal and take photos for map directions. (I've been taking photos and writing down directions for other military families that inquire because on-line maps are in Japanese, which is no help to a foreigner.)
Oversized Tanabata decorations, food vendors, and children’s games aligned both sides of four city blocks. By 16:00, blockades closed neighboring roads, traffic bottlenecked, and the streets bustled with young children dressed in yukatas and happi coats. In the 5+ hours we were in this part of town, we did not see ANY other Americans. Kyle was the ONLY hakojin in sight.
Upon returning to work on Monday, Kyle asked his co-workers if any of them attended the festival and none of them even knew it happened.
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