The Tanabata Festival is a Japanese star-viewing festival, originating from the Chinese Qixi Festival (Cowherd and Weaver Girl), which celebrates the meeting of the two gods Orihime and Hikoboshi (representing the constellations Vega and Altair). Every year on July 7, people in Japan celebrate the star festival, also known as Qixi Festival.
The Tanabata Festival originates from the legend of a girl named Tanabata-tsume (Orihime) who wove the Milky Way, of a love that was broken with a cowherd named Hikoboshi, and only on this 7th of July, when the sky becomes clear, the two stars at the opposite ends of the Milky Way can reunite. If it rains, it means that the river in the sky is too high and the birds cannot work together to build a bridge for the boy and girl to meet.
