Thank you for your support.Albirex Niigata Football Club will be celebrating the "TANABATA" Festival this Friday
3rd July 2009 at Jurong East Stadium!!!!
Dear Fans and Supporter Club Members , we are pleased to welcome you to celebrate the TANABATA Festival with Albirex Niigata Football Club!
1) Following traditonal customs for TANABATA Festival in Japan, we will have a Bamboo Tree setup at level 2 Merchandise Booth for Fans and Supporters to write their wish on paper slips and to hang on the Bamboo Tree!
2) Please come between 630pm-730pm before Match Starting time to write your wish and put it on the Bamboo Tree!!
3) You are welcome to write your wishes on the Bamboo Tree during Half time also at 815pm!!
May your wish this TANABATA Festival come true!!
Some History on Tanabata Festival :
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tanabata
The festival originated from The Festival to Plead for Skills, an alternative name for Qi Xi, which was celebrated in China and also was adopted in the Kyoto Imperial Palace from the Heian Period.
The festival spread to the general public by the early Edo period, became mixed with various Obon or Bon traditions (because Bon was held on 15th of the seventh month then), and developed into the modern Tanabata festival.
In the Edo period, girls wished for better sewing and craftsmanship, and boys wished for better handwriting by writing wishes on strips of paper.
Tanabata Festival in Present Day
In present-day Japan, people generally celebrate this day by writing wishes, sometimes in the form of poetry, on tanzaku, small pieces of paper, and hanging them on bamboo, sometimes with other decorations.
There is also a traditional Tanabata song:
Sasa no ha sara-sara
Nokiba ni yureru
Ohoshi-sama kira-kira
Kingin sunago
Translation:
The bamboo leaves rustle, rustle,
shaking away in the eaves.
The stars go twinkle, twinkle;
Gold and silver grains of sand.
