Celebrate Tanabata Festival - and write your wishes on paper
Wishing on Paper: Celebrating Tanabata, the Japanese Star Festival
Each year in early July, around July 7, Japan celebrates Tanabata — the Star Festival — a tradition that captures the beauty of longing, love, and the quiet hope of a handwritten wish. At Hands On Workshop, we’re drawn to the seasonal rituals of Japanese life, where everyday materials like paper and string become vessels of meaning. Tanabata is no exception.
The Legend
Tanabata is rooted in a timeless story. Orihime was a celestial weaver princess, known for creating the most beautiful cloth in the heavens. Hikoboshi, a humble cowherd, lived across the Milky Way. When the two fell deeply in love, they began to neglect their duties — Orihime stopped weaving, and Hikoboshi let his cattle roam. As punishment, the gods separated them, placing them on opposite sides of the Milky Way. Moved by their sorrow, the gods granted them one night each year — the seventh day of the seventh month — to meet again, if the skies are clear.
It’s a legend of longing and devotion, echoing themes of patience, beauty, and balance — much like the spirit behind many Japanese handmade crafts.
Traditions
Tanabata is celebrated by writing wishes on strips of colourful paper called tanzaku (短冊) and tying them to bamboo branches. Wishes may be personal goals, prayers for good fortune, or poetic dreams. These trees, filled with fluttering paper, become living symbols of hope.
In Japan, streets and shopping arcades are transformed with elaborate decorations — giant paper streamers, origami cranes, lanterns, and intricate cut-paper designs. Cities like Sendai and Hiratsuka host some of the most dazzling Tanabata festivals, complete with parades, traditional music, and fireworks. The celebrations stretch for days, bringing together local artistry, community spirit, and ancient folklore.
At night, streets and parks are illuminated with lanterns, casting a warm glow over the festival. It’s a dreamy, softly lit atmosphere — paper rustling in the trees, music drifting through the air.
Bringing Tanabata Home
Even if you’re far from Japan, Tanabata is a tradition which fits well with the idea of renewal at this mid point in the year. A time to pause and record thoughts about the year ahead. What has changed, grown or deviated from the ideas you had in January.
If you want to create your own Tanabata, find a branch and some strips of colourful paper. Write your wishes or poems — small hopes, big dreams, or simple reminders of what matters — and tie them loosely to the branch. Create a focal decoration in your room, replace your draping plant or vase of flowers with your Tanabata branch and light a lantern or candle in the evening
It’s a beautiful seasonal ritual that doesn’t require much — just paper, intention, and a moment to pause. Or pick up a journal and adopt the same ritual .
At Hands On Workshop, we’re continually inspired by these kinds of cultural touchstones. They remind us that craft is more than making — it’s a way of connecting: to place, to tradition, to memory, and to hope.
Images from Unsplash
Top:Jane Dang
Middle: Da Shika
Bottom: YANGHONG YU