Japanese Culture & Traditions
Thank for your interest in Japanese Culture & Traditions. Have you visited my other pages, such as Introducing Mary Ohno, Kabuki Academy, and Japanese Language?
On this page, I would like to introduce you to timely Japanese culture and/or traditional events. Almost every month we Japanese have an event to celebrate and I'm positive that you want to know what it is all about. You can visit this page every month and find it out.
The topic of July 2011 is
"TANABATA"or "The Star
Festival"
The Star Festival, which is said to
be a combination of Chinese tradition with
beliefs peculiar to Japan. This festival
celebrates the meeting, just once a year,
of two lovers, Kengyu (the star Altair,
personified as a cowherd) and Shokujo
(Vega, as a
weaving girl), who are separated by the Milky Way on
the other days of the year. Pieces of bamboo are set
up in the garden and adorned with strips of paper of
five different colors on which are written poems
associated with the legend, and offerings of food,
such as corn and eggplant, are made. Also, young girls
pray that their handicraft will become as proficient
as Vega's was supposed to be.
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