🌟 💫 Star crossed lovers 🌟 💫
🌟 🎋👘The story of Tanabata 🐮🎋🌟

Today is a special day all over Japan where people celebrate Tanabata, the Star Festival. ⭐️ Tanabata celebrates the romantic story of two lovers 💕 The stars Vega and Altair who are only allowed to meet each other once a year if the skies are clear. 🌃 It is celebrated on the 7th day of the 7th lunar month. (Some places celebrate Tanabata on August 7th in accordance with the older Chinese calendar)

On Tanabata, people write wishes on small pieces of colored paper (tanzaku) and hang them on bamboo trees. 🎋🎋 On the following day, the decorated trees are floated on a river and burned as an offering. 🔥 There are many celebrations all over Japan🍡🎆

Tanabata originated from a Chinese legend called Qixi. The story of two lovers. Princess Orihime, 👸🏻the seamstress👗wove beautiful clothes. Because Orihime worked so hard weaving clothes, she despaired of ever finding love. Her father, God of the heavens, loved her dearly and arranged for her to meet Hikoboshi, the cow herder 🤴🐮who lived on the other side of the Milky Way. The two fell in love instantly and married 💏. Their love was so deep that Orihime stopped weaving and Hikoboshi let his cows wander the heavens.

Orihime’s father was angry and forbade them to be together, but Orihime begged him. He loved his daughter, so he decreed that the lovers could meet once a year--on Tanabata. However they found the river (Milky Way) to be too difficult to cross. 🌌Orihime became so despondent that a flock of birds came and made a bridge for her🦅🦅. If it rains on Tanabata, the birds will not come, and the two lovers must wait another year to be reunited, so Japanese always wish for good weather on Tanabata. There are many variations of this story, but this version is the most widely held.

Thats why in Japan we hope for clear skies on Tanabata so the lovers can be reunited.
👘🌟💫🎋👸🏻🌌🤴🎋💫⭐️🐮