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Tanabata

Sendai City is famous for the Tanabata festival held there every year from August 6-8. The old romantic Chinese legend is about a Weaver named Vega and a Herdsman named Altair who fell in love so deeply that they neglected their work. So, the gods banished to the opposite sides of the Milky Way and only allowed to meet once a year in the summer. Tanabata means "seven evenings" and it is said to be given this name because the stars meet on the seventh day of the seventh month in the Chinese (lunar) calendar. But, it is also said to be named Tanabata because Vega had set up a "tana", shelf, and a "hata", weaving machine to weave for the gods.