First, Japan celebrates Tanabata.
Japanese Valentine's Day in China originated in China, and it is said that it was introduced in Nara era. Tanabata in Japan is not mainly used to pray for love, but to pray for girls to have good skills.
Since the mid-Nara era, Japanese courts and upper classes have followed the example of Tang Palace, and Chinese Valentine's Day, Nvhong and Qixi poems have become a common practice. It continues the custom and habit of "seeking cleverness", but it has nothing to do with love.
Valentine's Day in China was originally on the seventh day of the seventh lunar month. After the Meiji Restoration, Japan abolished the lunar calendar, so the Tanabata in Japan and China are different in time, and every year is the seventh day of the solar calendar.
At this time of the year, adults and children get together and write down their wishes and poems on colorful long poems, which are hung on small bamboos in their own yards together with decorations made of paper.
This custom began in the edo period. In the days near Tanabata, bamboo trees will be found in many places, and wishing trees will be set up in places where shops sell summer clothes and supermarkets check out.
In addition, the annual "Chinese Valentine's Day" is held every summer in all parts of Japan. People are wearing traditional costumes, singing and dancing, and drums are bursting. In cooperation with "Chinese Valentine's Day", there is a fireworks festival every summer.
Second, North Korea and South Korea celebrate Tanabata.
According to the ancient Korean book "Korean Common Sense", Tanabata was originally a custom in China, and later spread to South Korea. The king of South Korea and the queen of Mongolia paid homage to Penny (Cowherd) and Vega together, and handed over their salaries to officials on the same day.
Unlike Japan, which falls on July 7th in the solar calendar, Korean Tanabata and China, it falls on July 7th in the lunar calendar. In the past, the custom of Korean Tanabata was almost copied from China, and there were activities such as begging for cleverness, printing books and offering sacrifices.
Korean women will pray for the weaver girl and hope that they have good needlework skills, which is the so-called' begging for cleverness' custom. Put the fruit on the table in the early morning of Qixi, and pray for the progress of needlework.
In the morning, women put melons, cucumbers and other fruits on the table to kowtow and pray. Women's knitting skills are getting better and better. Another important event of Korean Tanabata Festival is sacrifice, which can be divided into family sacrifice and collective sacrifice.
Korean women should put clean well water on the altar. Cowherd and Weaver Girl are no longer sacrifices. They mainly pray for the safety of their relatives and friends. In some places, people hold field festivals to pray for a bumper harvest.
Nowadays, young people in Korea don't pay much attention to the traditional Qixi Festival. They will only regard this day as an opportunity for dating, eating and giving gifts to each other. South Korea's Tanabata diet is also particular. Traditional foods include noodles, wheat pancakes and steamed cakes.
Tanabata custom in China
1, Xiangqiao Club
In Yixing, Jiangsu Province, there is the custom of the Qixi Xiangqiao Festival. Every year on Tanabata, someone will participate and build a fragrant bridge. The so-called incense bridge is a bridge with a length of four or five meters and a width of about half a meter, which is made of all kinds of thick and long incense-wrapped paper. It is equipped with railings and decorated with flowers made of five-color lines. At night, people offered sacrifices to the binary star, prayed for good luck, and then burned the incense bridge, symbolizing that the binary star had crossed the incense bridge and met happily. This fragrant bridge originated from the legendary magpie bridge legend.
Step 2 contact dew
In rural areas of Zhejiang, it is popular to use washbasins to receive dew. Legend has it that the dew on Tanabata is the tears when cowherd and weaver girl meet. If you put it in your eyes and hands, it can make people agile.