Tanabata

Tanabata is a Japanese summer festival, observed on the evening of July 7th. Tanabata means literally "Evening of the seventh", but it is also known as the Star Festival, because it celebrates the story of two heavenly lovers.

The story goes that Shokujo the Weaver (Vega), and Kengyu the Cowherd (Altair) were two young star people who worked for the gods, making cloth and milking the heavenly cows. They fell so much in love that they forgot to do their chores. The gods became angry when they found they had run out of cloth and milk, and put the two lovers on separate sides of the Milky Way.

The lovers were so sad to be separated that the gods eventually took pity on them and agreed that they could meet once a year on the night of Tanabata, if the sky was clear. It is said that the birds fly up to make a bridge so that the lovers may cross.

Agenda Today:
1. Shinto prayer
2. Hang Paper Streamers
3. Make a tanzaku wish
4. Kigan-sai (Wishes Ceremony)
5. Make Hiyashi Somen (Cold Noodles)

1. Shinto prayer:

Tanabata is a Shinto festival. Shinto is the native religion of Japan; the word means "Way of the Gods". Shinto teaches that kami (spirits) are everywhere; some kami are human ancestors, others are animals, and others are natural forces in the world (mountains, rivers, lightning, wind, waves, trees, rocks). Shinto tradition says that there are eight-million-million kami in Japan.

Shintoism teaches the importance of fitting into the world and enjoying it, and on having good relationships with the spirits surrounding us. Shinto has "Four Affirmations" or general ideas: 

1. Tradition and family: Families work to keep the traditions alive.  

2. Nature is sacred: When you touch nature, you are close to the Gods.  

3. Ritual purity: Keep clean always.  

4. Matsuri: Show honor to the Kami and ancestral spirits.

Shintos say prayers (called norito) daily to the kami. The “Hi-Fu-Mi” norito is a prayer of purification, to help change misfortune into good fortune. It's a string of syllables with no real words:

ひ ふ み よ い む な や  こ と も ち ろ ら ね
し き る ゆ ゐ つ わ ぬ そ を た は く め か
う お ゑ に さ り へ て の ま す あ せ え ほ れ け

In romanised Japanese:

Hi Fu Mi Yo I Mu Na Ya Ko To Mo Chi Ro Ra Ne
Shi Ki Ru Yu I Tsu Wa Nu So O Ta Ha Ku Me Ka
U O E Ni Sa Ri He Te No Ma Su A Se E Ho Re Ke

To hear what the Hi-Fu-Mi norito sounds like go to this link.

2. Hang Paper Streamers:

Toami, paper net

Tanabata is sometimes celebrated with dancing, parades, and fireworks. Often, though, it is celebrated quietly at home. The family gathers at dusk to hang fluttering paper streamers in trees and on bamboo poles. Seven kinds of ornaments are made for Tanabata. (You can find directions for most of these online.)

• Tanzaku- colorful paper strips with wishes (often for success at school) and love poems (see below).
• Fukinagashi- long narrow streamers, symbolizing the Weaver’s threads. 
• Toami- a paper net, wish for good fishing and harvests.
• Kuzukago- the trash net, wishes for cleanliness and thriftiness with money.
• Orizuru- a chain of origami cranes, wish for good health and a long life.
• Kinchaku- origami shaped like a purse, a wish for success with money.
• Kamigoromo- origami shaped like a tiny Kimono, wish for sewing skills.

Other origami ornaments in the shapes of flowers, stars, or birds, are tied up with the streamers, and also small bells that tinkle in the breeze.

3. Make a tanzaku wish:

One year I made a tanzaku with a wish for wisdom. Tanzaku are a petition to the Shinto kami- the spirits of nature and one's ancestors. When I write a tanzaku I am petitioning God, so I am thoughtful about what I ask for.

Supplies: Paper, brush and ink (or black pen), scissors, hole punch, string

1. Japanese writing uses characters called kanji, which were invented thousands of years ago, from Chinese pictographs. Each kanji is a whole word. You write them from the top towards the bottom. 

I used Google Translate - I don't know how accurate it is, but it's okay for my needs. I typed "wish for wisdom" and came up with this: 

知恵を望みます

2. I wrote the kanji top to bottom with a small brush, but it's fine to use a plain pen or marker. (Yes, I've practiced this before, but even so, I'm sure it looks inept to an expert!)

3. To finish, cut out the strip of paper, fold the top downwards, punch a hole and tie on a string. To hang the tanzaku with ceremony, read on!

4. Kigan-sai (Wishes Ceremony):

Kigan usually refers to wishes, but it also includes all kinds of personal prayers, or expressions of gratitude. In Japan you might visit a Shinto shrine for a Tanabata Kigan-sai ceremony, when priests would say a prayer for the accomplishment of your wishes, or you might honor the kami by yourself at home.

Here is a very simplified version of a Shinto ceremony, which I use with kids:

• Wash hands and rinse out your mouth.
• Ring a bell to get the kami’s attention.
• Bow from the waist, then clap twice and bow again. 
• Make an offering of incense to the kami.
• Hang your tanzaku.

5. Make Hiyashi Somen (Cold Noodles):

Cold somen noodles are the most commonly eaten food on Tanabata, because they are refreshing, and because the long thin noodles resemble weaving threads. You can serve somen with any toppings you like.

Ingredients

• 2 bundles dried somen noodles (3 oz. each) 

Sauce

• 1-1/4 tsp. dried bonito fish soup stock (Dashi)
• 2 tsp. sugar
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 3 Tbsp. soy sauce

Toppings

• 2 eggs 
• 3 fresh mushrooms (I used oyster mushrooms) 
• 3 scallions 
• 1 cucumber 
• cooked salad shrimp 

Yield: 4 servings-

1- Sauce: Combine sauce ingredients with 1 c. boiling water and stir to dissolve. Add ice to make 2 cups of sauce.











2- Prepare the toppings:

Scramble and cook the eggs in a thin pancake, then cool, roll it up into a tight tube, and cut into very thin strips. Put it in the refrigerator to chill.

Slice and sauté the mushrooms for a few minute, and put those in the refrigerator to chill.

Chop the scallions, and slice the cucumber into thin pieces.

Arrange toppings in small piles on a plate, or in individual bowls, including the cooked shrimp.

3- Boil water in a large pot. Add the somen noodles to the boiling water, and cook for one minute, stirring constantly so they don’t stick together.

4- Drain somen in a colander and wash the noodles with your hands under cold water. Traditionally, cold somen are served on a bowl of ice.

5- To eat, use tongs to pick up a serving of somen noodles, and put them in your bowl. Pour some of the sauce on top. Add toppings, and enjoy!