The Star Festival

Saturday, July seventh, two thousand and seven

It's The Star Festival, which is called "七夕(Tanabata)" in Japan, today. Tanabata bases on a Chinese legend as far as I checked it out on the Internet. According to the legend, a god in space separated a couple of stars that were lovers. Vega(織女星 Weaver) loved Altair(牽牛星 Cowherd) so much that she goofed off her weaving job. The god got angry at her attitude so much that the god couldn't help but put the Milky Way between them so that she can concentrate on her work. However, the god allowed them to see each other only on the night of July seventh because of their strong wish.

It's a sort of romantic story, isn't it?

Anyway, the festival has been held since the Edo period in Japan. Japanese people, especially children, write their wishes on strips of colorful paper, tie or hang them on the branches of bamboos, decorate them outside at night, and pray for their wishes to come true like Vega and Altair.


"quotes from LONGMAN Dictionary of Contemporary English"
goof off[phrasal verb]: to waste time or avoid doing any work