The Tanabata Festival originated from the worship of nature and the custom of women threading needles and begging for coquettishness, and was later given the meaning of love because of the legend of the Cowherd Weaving Maiden. And because the Weaving Maiden has a pair of skillful hands that can weave clouds, and the folk girls all hope to get the Weaving Maiden's aura, so in the Tanabata Festival on the day of the custom of "begging for coquettishness".
The "Cowherd and Weaving Maiden" of Tanabata comes from people's worship of natural celestial phenomena, and in ancient times people corresponded the astronomical star areas with the geographic regions, 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.
Related Customs
The Tanabata Festival began in ancient times, popularized in the Western Han Dynasty, and flourished in the Song Dynasty. In ancient times, Tanabata was an exclusive festival for pretty girls. Among the many folk customs of Tanabata, some of them gradually disappeared, but there are still quite a few that have been carried on by people.
The Tanabata Festival originated in China, and is also celebrated in some Asian countries influenced by Chinese culture, such as Japan, the Korean Peninsula, Vietnam, etc. On May 20, 2006, the Tanabata Festival was included in the first batch of national intangible cultural heritage by the State Council of the People's Republic of China*** and the State Council of the People's Republic of China.