What's the difference between Japanese Tanabata and China Tanabata?

Tanabata in China:

Valentine's Day in China originated in the Han Dynasty. Ge Hong in the Eastern Jin Dynasty recorded in Miscellanies of Xijing: "Women in the Han Dynasty often wear seven-hole needles on the seventh day of July, and everyone is there." This is the earliest document about Qixi that we know at present.

Traditional Chinese Valentine's Day is a festival for women, which mainly emphasizes "begging for cleverness", and women hope that they can be unique. Ancient women's begging for luck on Tanabata is also mentioned frequently in Tang poetry and Song poetry. Wang Jianyou of the Tang Dynasty wrote a poem: "The stars on Qixi are inlaid with pearls, and the palace moths on Qixi are busy."

Tanabata also emphasizes the love loyalty between the two sexes through the story of Cowherd and Weaver Girl. The Story of Hanwu records that Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty fell in love with the Queen Mother of the West, who asked Jade Bird to deliver letters to him. It is said that when the Queen Mother of the West is coming, the Jade Bird will report first. The Queen Mother of the West met with Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty five times, all on Qixi. In the Han Dynasty, the seventh day of July was celebrated in the court, and the hand was wrapped with a red silk rope, which was called Ai Lian and tied with love. Therefore, the theme of love has been highlighted since the Han Dynasty on July 7th.

Some scholars also believe that Tanabata is a mythological motif before the emergence of patriarchal society, and it is a ceremony to invite God to come down to earth and send him to heaven. The original meaning of begging for wisdom is begging for a bridge from the gods, "begging for a bridge of communication".

In addition, Qixi is also related to the imperial examination. It is said that Qixi is Kuixing's birthday, and Kuixing is the immortal in charge of the imperial examination.

Tanabata in Japan:

Tanabata, which was born in China, was introduced to Japan in Nara era. It merged with Japanese ancestor belief and shed girl belief, and contained more thoughts of "filth" (decontamination) closely related to Japanese Buddhism, which was quite Japanese.

Valentine's Day in China, Japan, has absorbed the romantic elements of Valentine's Day in China and China, and integrated the essence of traditional Japanese culture. Now it has become one of the traditional summer festivals in Japan.

Japanese Tanabata was originally a ritual activity of imperial nobles, also known as begging for clever drinking. Since the edo period, it has become a folk celebration. It turns out that, like China, it is July 7th in the old calendar. Later, after the calendar was changed in Meiji 6 (1873), only a few areas used the old calendar, and most areas changed Qixi to July 7 of the new calendar. In addition, East Japan, Hokkaido, Sendai and other places postponed 1 month, and took August 7th (three days from August 6th to 8th) as Valentine's Day in China, which was roughly the same as New Year's Eve in China.

2. Tanabata customs are different.

China's Qixi custom;

The most common custom of Tanabata in China is all kinds of begging activities carried out by women on the night of the seventh day of July. Most girls try their best to make small things and put some melons and fruits on them. Different regions have different ways to please others, and each has its own interests.

In Zhejiang, such as Hangzhou, Ningbo, Wenzhou and other places, all kinds of small objects on Tanabata are made of flour, which are called "Tuoguo" after being fried in oil. At night, Tuoguo, lotus, white lotus root and Hong Ling are displayed in the yard. The girl put a needle on the moon and begged the Weaver Girl to give her a clever skill, or caught a spider and put it in a box. If you open the box the next day, it's called cleverness.

In Jinhua, Zhejiang, every family will kill a chicken on July 7th. If there is no rooster at dawn, the cowherd and the weaver girl will never be separated.

Guangzhou's begging festival is unique. Before the festival comes, the girls prepare colored paper, medulla tetrapanacis, string, etc. in advance and weave them into various fancy gadgets. They also put seeds and mung beans in a small box and soaked them in water to germinate them. Buds grow to more than two inches and are used to worship the gods, which are called "worshipping the immortals" and "worshipping the gods". After Tanabata, the girls exchanged small crafts and toys to show their friendship.

I was in Fujian on Tanabata, and I wanted to let Zhinu enjoy and taste the fruit, and let her wish the fruit harvest in the coming year. The offerings include tea, wine, fresh fruit, five kinds of seeds (longan, red dates, hazelnuts, peanuts and melon seeds), flowers, pollen from female cosmetics and a censer. Generally, after fasting and bathing, everyone takes turns to burn incense and worship God and pray silently.

Then, everyone played a clever game. There are two kinds of begging for wisdom: one is "divination", that is, asking yourself whether you are smart or stupid with divination tools; The other is "matching cleverness", that is, whoever wears the needle quickly will be smart, and the slow one will be called "losing cleverness", and "losing cleverness" will give small gifts prepared in advance to skilled people.

Many families in Hong Kong still keep the traditional custom of the past. On Seven Sisters's birthday, they went to the paper shop to buy "Seven Sisters's clothes" and used them to "worship Seven Sisters" that night.

In the past, women used spiders, peas or mung beans to ask Seven Sisters to hint whether they could teach skills. There are two Seven Sisters temples in Zhou Peng and Saigon respectively. The Seven Sisters Temple in Zhou Peng is called the Fairy Sisters Temple. On the sixth day of July every year, many devout believers still go to worship Seven Sisters.

Japanese Qixi custom

Tanabata and Moon Festival (65438+1October 7), Shangsi (March 3), Dragon Boat Festival (May 5) and Chongyang (September 9) in Japan are all included in five festivals, which are national fixed festivals. Every year, Tanabata celebrations are held all over China. The most representative ones are Tanabata in Ancheng, Tanabata in Sendai and Tanabata in Peace Tomb, which are also known as the "Three Japanese Tanabata".

Different from the custom of Tanabata in China, in Japan, before and on Tanabata, people will hold some activities to celebrate and commemorate it, such as beauty contests, marathons and Tanabata dances.

At the same time, Tanabata is also considered as a day to tell wishes.

This custom has been passed down from the Edo period to this day. People write their wishes on five-color paper, which is called "short book" in Japanese. After tying silk thread, they hang them in bamboo forests or put them into rivers to pray for their wishes to come true. Before Tanabata every year, university libraries, supermarkets near home, and large shopping malls at stations all begin to prepare, and people can see notes and willow branches hanging their wishes everywhere.

It is precisely because of this custom that Tanabata in Japan is regarded as a festival for children, not Valentine's Day.