Tanabata is a Japanese summer festival. The festival celebrates the meeting of the deities Hikoboshi and Orihime – two celestial lovers represented by the stars Altair and Vega, which are usually separated by the Milky Way. According to legend, they are only allowed to meet once per year and this meeting occurs on the seventh lunar month of the lunisolar calendar. It is traditional for people to write their wishes on colorful strips of paper called tanzaku papers and affix them to bamboo branches.
