Japan's July holiday: what is 七夕?

July 6, 2024

Recently, I was looking around the internet for some ways to meet people here, and I stumbled upon a "七夕たなばた交流会こうりゅうかい" (Tanabata meetup).

A 交流会こうりゅうかい is a meetup, and in this case, it's one that's happening during 七夕たなばた.

Was my reminder that 七夕たなばた is happening soon!

What's 七夕?

Short answer: it's a holiday celebrated on July 7th that you'll see signs of everywhere if you're here in Japan ^^

What's 七夕 about? What do you do during 七夕? I need the details!

I've wondered this myself for a while, so let's find out ^^

Before I dove into my books, I took a peek around NativShark because I remember reading a lesson on it. I searched up 七夕たなばた in NativShark's search feature and…

Nice! Reading that, we learn that 七夕たなばた is the meeting of the two 神様かみさまs (kami, deity) called 彦星ひこぼし (Hikoboshi) and 織姫おりひめ (Orihime). These two lovers are separated by 天あまの川がわ (The Milky Way) and can only meet once a year.

The two lovers are stars, by the way. Like, in the night sky. I'll explain more below, but this is why we sometimes see 七夕たなばた translated as "the Star Festival".

We also learn that on 七夕たなばた, it's tradition to write your wishes on 短冊たんざく (long, narrow strips of paper) and hang them on 笹ささ (broad-leaf bamboo). Here's what that looks like:

(Picture from weathernews.jp)

You'll see this all over Japan during 七夕たなばた. I know I've seen this in plenty of 駅えき (train stations), 商店街しょうてんがい (shopping streets), モール (malls), and such.

No worries if the Japanese above or in the lesson is tough, by the way. NativShark Units are best reached one press of the Study Now button at a time ^^

If you don't have an account yet, you can make one and start your free trial here:

応援おうえんしてます！ (You got this; I'm cheering you on) ^^

All of this leaves me with a question though.

Why can 織姫おりひめ and 彦星ひこぼし only meet once a year?

I also remember reading about 七夕たなばた in one of my favorite books, "1日1ページ、読むだけで身につく日本の教養365", so I checked it out after the NativShark search.

Here's a quote from that book that answers my question. It's quite the sentence due to the names and textbook language, so don't worry too much if it's hard to understand ^^

"織物が得意な娘・織女（織姫）と働き者の牛飼いの青年・牽牛（牽牛星彦星）の2人は結婚した途端に遊び暮らすようになったため、織女の父である天空で一番偉い神様・天帝が激怒し、織女と牽牛を引き離した。"

Yeah, that's certainly a lot ^^; Thankfully, we can break this into a bunch of smaller parts, so let's do that together.

Personally, when I'm overwhelmed by a long sentence like this, I find it helpful to start with the last part.

In this sentence, that's:

"…織女しょくじょと牽牛けんぎゅうを引ひき離はなした。"
pulled Shokujo[Vega, (the star)] and Kengyu[Altair, (the star)] apart.

Okay, so we have two people who were pulled apart.

Skimming the rest of the sentence, we see that 織女 and 牽牛 are the two lovers 織姫 and 彦星:

"…織女しょくじょ（織姫おりひめ）….牽牛けんぎゅう（牽牛星けんぎゅうほし彦星ひこぼし）…"
Shokujo (Orihime) Kengyu (Kengyuhoshi Hikoboshi)…

What were they pulled apart by?

Continuing our strategy of reading the sentence from the end first, we have our next part:

"…織女しょくじょの父ちちである天空てんくうで一番いちばん偉えらい神様かみさま・天帝てんていが激怒げきどし、"
Shokujo's father, the greatest in the heavens, Tentei, became furious…

We see that it was 織姫おりひめ's father, who was angry.

Why was he angry?

Taking a look at the previous part tells us…

"…2人ふたりは結婚けっこんした途端とたんに遊あそび暮くららすようになったため、"
the two became lazy as soon as they got married…

Looks like they just goofed off and stopped working once they got married ^^;

So now we know why. The book continues on to tell us that after they were separated, they eventually convinced 天帝てんてい to let them meet once a year. And that happens on 七夕たなばた.

By the way, their names point to what their jobs are. 織姫おりひめ spins 織物おりもの (fabrics) and 牽牛けんぎゅう raises cattle.

The origin of ありがとうございます (thank you)

The newest Unit release contains this lesson about old Japanese.

Here's the start of it:

Then it goes on to explain the reasons behind how and why some words still use this language.

ありがとうございます is one of them!

Blew my mind ^^

I really wish I had this lesson when I started watching Shogun. It's full of old language like this and knowing this going into it would've made understanding it a lot easier for sure haha.

Maybe I'll have to do a rewatch soon.

Anyway, be sure to check the lesson out!

If the above Japanese is difficult for you, all you need to do is keep hitting the Study Now button and you'll understand it when you get there. When using a comprehensive study resource like NativShark, it's just a matter of time and consistency. The above is from a lesson in Phase Three, Unit 247.

NativShark goodie bag

4 new Units have been added to Phase Three ^^

As always, these Units are filled with vocab with their own unique contexts that help you understand Japanese at a deeper level, any relevant new kanji, and natural conversations called Dialogues at the end.

They also have the following lessons:

Phase Three, Unit 244

The "original" formal form of i-adjectives
↑ I'm so happy this lesson is live now. I love this kind of stuff ^^

Thanks for reading all the way to the end!
Ty & the NativShark team