Japanese Tanabata Festival

      Japan, a powerful country which is well-known and recognized with its advanced technology. Also, this country is famous with its customs as well as culture. Every year, there are many festivals or ceremonies celebrated in Japan. One of those annual festivals is called Tanabata Festival which simply means the seventh day of the seventh month or Star Festival. It is held at homes, schools and public places too.

     


        The Tanabata festival is believed to have started in China. Then, it was transmitted to Japan during the feudal period and combined with traditional local customs to become an official event at the Imperial court. It is also said that it started around 2,000 years ago. Why do people celebrate this festival? Basically, Japanese ancestors said that it is celebrated according to an old Chinese tale, called Kikkoden. Once there was a weaver princess named Orihime were in love with a cow herder prince named Hikobosi. They both were living in space and had deep affection towards each other until they forgot to complete their work. This made the king furious and separated them by Amanogawa River (Milky Way). They were allowed to meet only once a year on 7th of the 7th  month in the lunar calendar. Therefore, Japanese celebrate this festival in order to pray for the weather to be good on that day so that they both can see each other. Meanwhile, Japanese make some wishes for themselves as well as their beloved people too.

        During Tanabata Festival, people write down their wishes ( work, studies, love, etc) on the tanzaku papers which are the colorful, small strips of papers. After that, they hang them on the bamboo branches along with other decoration and place the bamboo tree outside the houses, schools or workplaces before praying hard to make their wishes come true. They also put some decorations along the street and public places. It is believed that the most common Tanabata decorations are colourful streamers which are symbolized the weaving of threads. Other common decorations are Toami (casting net), which means good luck for fishing
and farming and Kinchaku (bag), which means wealth.
Besides, there are other meaningful origami made with
various symbolism such as stars, hearts, stairs.

        In Cambodia, Tanataba Festival is also being celebrated for a few years at Cambodia Japan Cooperation Center, Phnom Penh. CJCC has hosted many events every year in order to spread the Japanese culture as well as to let Japanese learners learn more about how Japanese celebrate their ceremonies. Like the previous years, CJCC is going to celebrate this event on 14th July  but in a bigger image. The event will last for the whole afternoon until 8 in the evening. It is free admission and there is no need to register in advance. Thus, please come to join us altogether. You can more info in the poster below here or visit this  CJCC Facebook page.