July 6, 2009
Star Festival gives Japanese opportunity to dwell on future
Star Festival gives Japanese opportunity to dwell on future
The “tanabata” Star Festival amounts to an opportunity for Japanese people to dwell on their future. People put up branches of bamboo with their wishes written on small pieces of paper in front of their houses. Separately, tanabata summer festivals take place in major cities, attracting hundreds of thousands or millions of visitors. People enjoy strolling through streets lined by tall bamboo poles with decorated lanterns and streamers hanging
The star festival, observed in early July or early August in Japan, originally comes from a legend in the ancient China in which the star of the weaver and the star of the cowherd, known as Vega and Altair in the West, make a rendezvous only once a year over the Milky Way. Japanese people make wishes to the heaven while thinking of the long separated heavenly couple.
The star festival, observed in early July or early August in Japan, originally comes from a legend in the ancient China in which the star of the weaver and the star of the cowherd, known as Vega and Altair in the West, make a rendezvous only once a year over the Milky Way. Japanese people make wishes to the heaven while thinking of the long separated heavenly couple.
In Hiratsuka, Kanagawa Prefecture, which hosts one of the biggest tanabata festivals, organizers, mainly local shop owners, set up several stands to accept wishes from visitors with a 100-yen donation. Their wishes, written on tanzaku long strips of paper, will be dedicated to a shrine after the end of the festival. A father wrote “Peace continue on my family,” while a young woman wrote “A good partner appear before me.”
Most tanabata festivals form part of serious efforts by the local business community to prop up their declining economy. A Japanese-style restaurant in Hiratsuka built its own bamboo decoration, inviting school pupils to hang tanzaku strips with their wishes on the bamboo leaves. “I would like to cross Amanogawa, just one time,” read the wish of an 11-year-old girl. The Milky Way is called Amanogawa, or Heavenly River in Japan. A waka poem composed by an unknown woman and included in the Kokinwakashu poem anthology of the early 10th century says:
Ferryman on the Heavenly River!
Please hide your rudder when my lover has arrived here
so that he may not return to the other side.
(A personal translation)
About 34,000 pieces of tanzaku paper with visitors’ wishes were collected in the tanabata festival in Hiratsuka last year. “We expect more wishes to be collected and dedicated this year,” said a young man in charge of the campaign. Organizers and visitors equally look more serious this year as Japan is struggling amid the global recession.
In July 2008,, the then Japanese Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda hosted an annual leaders’ meeting of eight major countries at a lakeside resort in northern Japan. He asked participants and their spouses to write their wishes on tanzaku strips of paper for a social function at the start of the event. “Our future be opened up with the wisdom of mankind,” Fukuda wrote. He stepped down two months later, however.
Most tanabata festivals form part of serious efforts by the local business community to prop up their declining economy. A Japanese-style restaurant in Hiratsuka built its own bamboo decoration, inviting school pupils to hang tanzaku strips with their wishes on the bamboo leaves. “I would like to cross Amanogawa, just one time,” read the wish of an 11-year-old girl. The Milky Way is called Amanogawa, or Heavenly River in Japan. A waka poem composed by an unknown woman and included in the Kokinwakashu poem anthology of the early 10th century says:
Ferryman on the Heavenly River!
Please hide your rudder when my lover has arrived here
so that he may not return to the other side.
(A personal translation)
About 34,000 pieces of tanzaku paper with visitors’ wishes were collected in the tanabata festival in Hiratsuka last year. “We expect more wishes to be collected and dedicated this year,” said a young man in charge of the campaign. Organizers and visitors equally look more serious this year as Japan is struggling amid the global recession.
In July 2008,, the then Japanese Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda hosted an annual leaders’ meeting of eight major countries at a lakeside resort in northern Japan. He asked participants and their spouses to write their wishes on tanzaku strips of paper for a social function at the start of the event. “Our future be opened up with the wisdom of mankind,” Fukuda wrote. He stepped down two months later, however.
This year’s meeting comes at a time when the political climate is stormy for some participants, including those from Britain and Japan. Nobody knows what their wishes should be to overcome tough challenges facing the world.
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