GotJapan

A Japanese woman performs at a Samba festival in Tokyo August 28, 2004. The annual samba carnival attracted hundreds of thousands of people while 4,500 samba dancers and participants paraded with floats along downtown streets in the Asakusa district.

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Children with freshly shaven heads pose Wednesday for a photo at Higashi-Honganji Temple in Kyoto’s Shimogyo Ward. The Otani branch of the Shinshu sect of Buddhism allows 9-year-olds to become priests, with initiation ceremonies held almost monthly.

July 7th is called Tanabata in Japan. It’s a Japanese tradition wherein people write their wishes on tanzaku paper (colorful, small strips of paper) and hang them on bamboo branches. People also hang many kinds of paper decorations on bamboo branches and place them outside their houses. People celebrate the day at home and in schools.

The most common Tanabata decorations are colorful streamers. Streamers are said to symbolize the weaving of threads. Other common decorations are Toami (casting net), which means good luck for fishing and farming and Kinchaku (bag), which means wealth.

Tanabata originated more than 2000 years ago with an old Chinese tale called Kikkoden.