Tanabata
7 July 2026 — Once a year the bridge across the Milky Way opens. Make a wish!
Tanabata, the Star Festival, is celebrated in Japan on 7 July. It comes from the Chinese legend of the Weaver Girl and the Cowherd, which reached Japan in the Nara period and blended with local customs. According to the tale, Orihime weaves heavenly cloth while Hikoboshi tends cattle. They fall in love and neglect their work, so they are separated by the Milky Way, called Amanogawa, the “Heavenly River” in Japan. They may meet only once a year. Orihime is linked with the star Vega (in the constellation Lyra), and Hikoboshi with Altair (in Aquila). People write wishes on colourful paper strips called tanzaku and hang them on bamboo branches. In many places the festival is held a month later, in early August, closer to its season under the old lunar calendar; Sendai, for example, celebrates it every year on 6–8 August. Streets are decorated, and some towns hold parades and fireworks. A clear night is best for spotting the two stars.
Flying across the sky: An ethereal, bluish-silver figure of a weaving maiden made of luminous dots and fine lines, like a constellation drifting across the sky, trailing a long shimmering thread of stars; she crosses a delicate bridge of starlight to meet a second star-figure, a herdsman, at the far side of the Milky Way
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