Star Festival (Late Pass)

So July 7th was Tanbata (七夕) , which is a star festival in Japan. Apparently this is more prominint in August, but I guess we were celebrating it in July.

How did I figure this out? Well the conversation came up around lunch time. I pick up my daily bento box, open it and was surprised to see a plethora of star shaped foods. I forgot my camera that day so I didn't take a photo of the bento. *Sadness*

I looked online to find something that would give you and idea of what it looked like, but I failed! For now lets just use this photo as an exaggeration of what I saw.

In my mind..."Oh this is different...that's kind of cute what they did with the eggs". I guess the people I was sitting with saw that I was kind of confused by the plate and wanted to explain why my bento was shaped this way.

They told me that two stars described as two lovers, a Prince (Hikoboshi) and a Princess (Tentei), who meet together in the sky once a year on the 7th day of the 7th month.

They said I should write a wish down on paper and put it in a long envelope and hang it on a bamboo tree.

I made my wish and well...I haven't seen any bamboo trees so I just stuck it on my desk. When I got home I looked up the story on Wiki and this is what they had to say.

Orihime (織姫 Weaving Princess^?), daughter of the Tentei (天帝 Sky King, or the universe itself^?), wove beautiful clothes by the bank of the Amanogawa (天の川 Milky Way, lit. "heavenly river"^?). Her father loved the cloth that she wove and so she worked very hard every day to weave it. However, Orihime was sad that because of her hard work she could never meet and fall in love with anyone. Concerned about his daughter, Tentei arranged for her to meet Hikoboshi (彦星 Cow Herder Star^?) (also referred to as Kengyuu (牽牛^?)) who lived and worked on the other side of the Amanogawa. When the two met, they fell instantly in love with each other and married shortly thereafter. However, once married, Orihime no longer would weave cloth for Tentei and Hikoboshi allowed his cows to stray all over Heaven. In anger, Tentei separated the two lovers across the Amanogawa and forbade them to meet. Orihime became despondent at the loss of her husband and asked her father to let them meet again. Tentei was moved by his daughter’s tears and allowed the two to meet on the 7th day of the 7th month if Orihime worked hard and finished her weaving. The first time they tried to meet, however, they found that they could not cross the river because there was no bridge. Orihime cried so much that a flock of magpies came and promised to make a bridge with their wings so that she could cross the river. It is said that if it rains on Tanabata, the magpies cannot come and the two lovers must wait until another year to meet.

I didn't have my camera, but I did save some candy that was in my bento. So you can at least see that. I asked if there were any celebrations that day and they didn't know any.