* | Tanaba | *Tanabata (七夕, tanabata?, meaning "Evening of the seventh") is a Japanese star festival, derived from the Chinese star festival, Qi Xi (七夕 "The Night of Sevens")．It celebrates the meeting of Orihime (Vega) and Hikoboshi (Altair). The Milky Way, a river made from stars that crosses the sky, separates these lovers, and they are allowed to meet only once a year on the seventh day of the seventh lunar month of the lunisolar calendar. Since the stars come out at night, the celebration is held at night.
In present-day Japan, people generally celebrate this day by writing wishes, sometimes in the form of poetry, on tanzaku (短冊, tanzaku), small pieces of paper, and hanging them on bamboo, sometimes with other decorations. The bamboo and decorations are often set afloat on a river or burned after the festival, around midnight or on the next day. This resembles the custom of floating paper ships and candles on rivers during Obon. Many areas in Japan have their own Tanabata customs, which are mostly related to local Obon traditions. There is also a traditional Tanabata song:
Sasa no ha sara-sara ( 笹の葉 さらさら )
Nokiba ni yureru ( 軒端にゆれる )
Ohoshi-sama kira-kira ( お星様 キラキラ )
Kingin sunago ( 金銀砂子 )
Translation:
The bamboo leaves rustle, rustle,
shaking away in the eaves.
The stars go twinkle, twinkle;
Gold and silver grains of sand.
Yup, I've stole the info from wiki because I was too lazy to say it with my own words...anyway...
So what are your wishes everyone? Anything grand or just something modest?
Happy
--
Anata wa ima doko de nani wo shite imasu ka?
Kono sora no tsuzuku basho ni imasu ka?
...Ima wa tada sore wo negai tsuzukeru.
--
"La vita è vita...Che sia avvolta da pelle, piume, o scaglie." (Babylon 5)
--
Anata wa ima doko de nani wo shite imasu ka?
Kono sora no tsuzuku basho ni imasu ka?
...Ima wa tada sore wo negai tsuzukeru.
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