The origin and customs of Tanabata

The Tanabata Festival evolved from the worship of the stars, and is traditionally known as the "Seven Sisters Festival", because the worship of the "Seven Sisters" was held on July 7th, hence the name "Tanabata".

Worshipping the seven sisters, praying for blessings and making wishes, begging for skillful art, sitting and watching the Altair and Vega stars, praying for marriage, and storing Tanabata water are the traditional customs of Tanabata. Through the development of history, Tanabata has been endowed with the beautiful love legend of "Cowherd and Weaving Maiden", making it a festival symbolizing love, which is considered the most romantic traditional festival in China, and in contemporary times, it has even produced the cultural meaning of "Chinese Valentine's Day".

The Tanabata Festival is not only a festival to worship seven sisters, but also a festival of love, which is a comprehensive festival with the theme of praying for blessings, begging for coincidental gifts, and love, with women as the main body, and with the folk legend of the Cowherd and the Weaving Maiden as the carrier.

The "Cowherd and Weaving Maiden" of Tanabata comes from people's worship of natural celestial phenomena. In ancient times, people corresponded the astronomical star area with the geographic area, and this correspondence was called "star division" in terms of astronomy and "field division" in terms of geography. This correspondence is known as "the division of stars" for astronomy and "the division of fields" for geography. According to legend, every year on the seventh day of the seventh month, the Cowherd and the Weaving Maiden will meet at the Magpie Bridge in the sky.