Today (July 7th) is the Tanabata Star Festival in Japan. There are several versions of the story behind this
festival but it goes something like this: the daughter of the sky king
was a weaver and weaved beautiful cloth but, because she worked so hard,
she didn't have time to meet anyone or fall in love. The sky king arranged for his
daughter to meet a cow herder -- they met, fell in love and got married.
After they were married they forgot to do their work and so his cows were
roaming around and she stopped weaving. The sky king got angry and
separated them. His daughter was very upset and cried a lot, and so the
sky king agreed that they could meet once a year on the 7th day of the
7th month. The problem is, if it rains they cannot meet and must wait
another year. For this festival, people write their wishes on paper and hang them from bamboo (as in the photo above). http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-18730773
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