Putting Star Festival decorations on the empty space after removing rubbles
[From Ofunato city-my stricken home town]
– East Japan Great Earthquake & Tsunami Disaster-
Children from ‘Uminohoshi Kindergarten’ participated for decoration
Local construction workers who removed rubbles from the stricken areas in the center of Ofunato town brought in bamboo branches for decorations of ‘Tanabata 七夕’or the Star Festival. The kindergarten children from ‘Uminohoshi Kindergarten’ participated putting on long strips of paper to write their wishes on them. About 30 participants, including senior children from the kindergarten, decorated the bamboo branches. Fortunately, the kindergarten is located in rather high ground and could leave unhurt from the tsunami, but there are still mount of rubbles in the street.
The construction workers whished children to live positive view of life and decided to decorate empty space with bamboo decorations of the Star Festival. The kindergarten children wrote their dreams in future on long strips of paper before hang them. About 3 meters bamboo branches were decorated with these long strips paper with their dreams written by 17 children. Strips of paper with wishes such as, ‘I wish I will be able to be a professional baseball player’ and ‘I wish our town Ofunato will be full of vitality’ were tied to the bamboo branches by children.
‘I will try hard to practice playing piano and become famous.’ Mr. Ryoya Kudo (5) said in smile, who dreams to be a pianist. ‘I like to reconstruct our town better than before for these children.’ Mr. Yuto Shida (49), one of the workers expressed. Children finally sang a song ‘Tanabata-sama’ all together in front of the beautiful decorations of the Star Festival.
Sasa no ha sara-sara (笹の葉 さらさら)
Nokiba ni yureru (軒端にゆれる)
Ohoshi-sama kira-kira (お星様 キラキラ)
Kingin sunago (金銀砂子)
Translation:
The bamboo leaves rustle,
shaking away in the eaves.
The stars twinkle;
Gold and silver grains of sand.
Tanabata (七夕) is a Japanese star festival, originating from the Chinese Qixi Festival. It celebrates the meeting of the deities Orihime and Hikoboshi (represented by the stars Vega and Altair respectively). According to legend, the Milky Way separates these lovers, and they are allowed to meet only once a year on the seventh day of the seventh lunar month of the lunisolar calendar. The date of Tanabata varies by region of the country, but the first festivities begin on July 7 of the Gregorian calendar. The celebration is held at night.
＜Reference＞
http://www.iwate-np.co.jp/
http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
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