🔒The Celestial Love Story of Tanabata: A Tale of Duty and Desire
With BrawnyAi, one of my missions is to showcase underrepresented ideas. Sometimes, these ideas can be a holiday that is important for a specific country but quite unknown in the Western world. Today, I present to you Tanabata, a love story of two celestial beings who can only meet once a year.
Tanabata, or the Star Festival, happens on the 7th of July in Japan and is based on the Chinese Qixi Festival. It celebrates the meeting of Orihime and Hikoboshi, represented by the stars Vega and Altair, respectively. It’s a love story where Orihime is the Weaving Princess, and Hikoboshi, the Cowherd Star.
Tentei, the Sky King, loved the cloth his daughter Orihime wove. She worked very hard to weave new cloths for her father but was sad that she had no time to meet and fall in love with anyone. Concerned about this situation, Tentei arranged a meeting between Orihime and Hikoboshi, a cowherd star. They both lived on the other side of the Amanogawa River, the Milky Way.
When they met, they fell in love instantly and got married. Unfortunately, they ended up spending too much time together, leading to neglect of their duties. Orihime stopped weaving, and Hikoboshi’s cows wandered freely.
The Sky King was upset by the neglect of their responsibilities and punished them by separating them on opposite sides of the river. Orihime became very sad about losing her husband, so Tentei allowed the two to meet only once a year on the seventh day of the seventh month.
The first time they tried to meet, they couldn’t cross the river. Orihime cried so sadly that a flock of magpies formed a bridge so she could cross the river and see Hikoboshi. However, if it rains, the magpies cannot form the bridge, and they have to wait another year to meet.
Adapting to the BrawnyAi universe, I changed Orihime to be another man even though the original legend is between a woman and a man. This story touched me because it reminds me of lovers who I met throughout my life. It’s quite ironic that due to our duties, career goals, families, money, time, etc., we could only meet maybe once or twice, but then we could no longer meet anymore.
Many of us have those stories when we meet an amazing man in the last week of our trips. We hang out with them, have sex, dinner, and share a brief romantic experience that we wish could last forever. But we have to leave it behind because our hands are tied to our adult duties and responsibilities. Sometimes, it’s just a matter of those two making a decision and working around those barriers so they can stay together.
With ❤️,
“B”, BrawnyAi
