tabular_rasa | Happy Tanabata! (Reply)

HAPPY TANABATA!!!

Possibly one of my favorite holidays ^_^ however so low-key-- and, well, nonexistent, here in the United States :-P

Tanabata is the star festival in Japan; it celebrates the legend of a weaver princess (and not just any princess; she's got connections to the gods) and a shepherd boy whose families forbid them to be together (one of those class things, you know). The tales differ from place to place, about whether the two did marry and have children, but in all tales they are discovered, usually because their tasks have gone undone. The gods punish them by turning them into the stars Vega (her) and Altair (him), divided by the divine Milky War river, only to meet once a year on this night. It's like Romeo and Juliet; you can see why I like it ^_^

To celebrate Tanabata, people (mostly children) write personal wishes on long slips of paper and hang them with colorful ribbon from the branches of trees. It's colorful and cute-- particularly if you do it with a kindergarten class in Japan, like I did the time I got to *actually* celebrate it, lol . . .

So . . . yeah ^_^

I saw Pirates last night; rant coming later.