Portland Japanese Garden - Tanabata, the Star Festival

Tanabata 2009

Sunday, July 5

Noon-4pm

One of the five Go-Sekku seasonal festivals of Japan, Tanabata is traditionally celebrated on the seventh day of the seventh month. The Portland Japanese Garden celebrates Tanabata each year on the Sunday closest to this date.

The 2009 Tanabata Festival will be held at the Portland Japanese Garden on Sunday, July 5 from 1-4pm in the Garden Pavilion. Children will write their wishes on tanzaku (paper strips) and make origami ornaments to hang on bamboo branches—which they may take with them to hang in their doorways at home. Music will also be part of the day, provided by guitarist Toshi Onizuka.

Tanabata: Make a Wish

Emerging from the Nagasaki train station on a sunny morning in early July, I was surprised and delighted to see a row of limber bamboo branches arranged in front of the station, each one festooned with colorful strips of paper and paper ornaments which fluttered in the breeze. What was this about? A shopkeeper answered, "Tanabata!" I soon learned about the old legend that inspired this charming display...

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Tanabata

Also known as the Star Festival, Tanabata has its roots in a Chinese legend about the love between a young princess, Orihime, who was a weaver, and a handsome young cowherd named Kengy? (represented by the stars Vega and Altair). As a result of their great love for each other, the weaver neglected her work weaving cloth for the gods and the herdsman neglected his cattle. In punishment, Orihime's father, the emperor of the heavens, moved the star-lovers to opposite sides of the Milky Way and stated that they would only be allowed to meet once a year: on the seventh day of the seventh month. On this night a flock of heavenly magpies use their wings to form a bridge that the weaver can cross to join her lover. The magpies will only make the bridge if July 7 is a clear night; if it rains, the lovers must wait another year. One popular Tanabata custom is to write wishes and poems on colorful strips of paper called tanzaku and hang them on fresh-cut bamboo branches in the hope that the wishes come true. Some say the bending Tanabata bamboo poles symbolize the bridge that the lovers will cross for their brief reunion...

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