CDK's Rant's, Reviews & News: Lets Celebrate The Tanabata Star Festival ~

Orihime and Hikoboshi

Can You Spot Them~

So how the hell is tatabanta and how does it relate to my blog?? Well quite simply it's a two thousand year old Asian holiday/tradition that Japan, China and South Korea still celebrate to this day. The legend or story of this holiday has been used countless times in manga, anime, visual novels, books and other forums of entertainment in Asia so I figured why not share a little on what this holiday is about. The story is actually pretty simple and kinda romantic, however due to lack of my own time I will just copy-paste Wikipedia's summary below under the fair-use clause.

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 she 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.

As you can plainly see it's really a simple story so every July 7th major Asian nations celebrate the reunion of Orihime and Hikoboshi under the star filled sky with festivals fireworks, parades by dressing up in traditional clothing known as yukata's. I bring this up again because one of the visual novels I am playing called Hoshizora no Memoria- Wish Upon a Shooting Star deals greatly with this old legend. It actually made me do research to find out what the hell was going on which I give that some huge props for making me do so.

I also regert not diving deeper into this legend when I was watching/reading other series but I have never seen such focus before on this legend being done, or maybe my brain just blocked it out for some reason...hmmm oh well. If you also happen to be fan of lucky star to day is the b-day of the Hiiragi Twins "Kagami & Tsukasa". Well With all of the info dumping out the way I figure that I'll share a few anime related pics and the OP to wish upon a shooting star I uploaded to you-tube, so sit back and enjoy everyone~