Tanabata Festival

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On the weekend Shimizu held the Tanabata festival. I have mentioned in a pervious blog what Tanabata is but just to refresh your memory it is:
From Wikipedia
Tanabata (?? tanabata?), meaning "Seven Evenings") is a Japanese star festival, derived from Obon traditions and the Chinese star festival, Qi Xi. The festival is usually held on July 7, and 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. This special day is the seventh day of the seventh lunar month of the lunisolar calendar.
People generally celebrate this day by writing wishes, sometimes in the form of poetry, on tanzaku (?? 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.

We didnt make down to Shimizu until late on Staurday night but the festival was still going. As always with Japanese festivals there are food stalls after food stalls. When we arrived we saw people participating in some kind of dance I am not sure what this was for. Japanese women were wearing Yukata, summer Kinono's and they looked very beautiful in the traditional dress. As we walked through the shopping arcade it had been decorated with traditional Tanabata decorations that looked very beautiful and reminded me of pinjata's. Traditionally there are seven different kinds of decorations, which each represent different meanings. The seven decorations and their symbolic meanings are:
1)Paper strips,Wishes for good handwriting and studies
2)Paper Kimono,Wishes for good sewing. Wards off accidents and bad health.
3)Paper Crane, Family safety, health, and long life
4)Paper Purse,Good business
5)Net, Good fishing and harvests
6)Trash Bag,Cleanliness and unwastefulness
7)Streamers,The strings that Orihime uses to weave.

After we had a quick look at the Tanabata decorations we headed up to Tomoko's (the principal at the Kindy) for dinner. She lived on the top level of a new appartment block and the view from there of Shimizu was beautiful. We ate traditional Japanese food which was very tasty.

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Comments

[BlackManx]

hey
anapanman!!!!!! that suhi looked great, but with you and marissa there i cant work out who ate it!

[DantheMan]

Heard you recently had a typhoon over there. Hope it wasn't too bad.

[DantheMan]

Just heard about the earthquake, (although perhaps too far away to have an effect on you?) Never a dull moment over there.

[mum]

the decorations look great at the festval .you are certainly living and experiencing a different lifestyle over there i am so pleased you have had the chance to do that xoxo