Join us for the annual Japanese star festival! Tanabata 七夕 at the garden is a family-friendly event that we celebrate with magnificent colors, craft making, and a tradition of writing wishes. This year, we are going to celebrate for 3 days.
The origin of Tanabata comes from the legend of Orihime and Hikoboshi, star crossed lovers separated by the Milky Way. Each year on the evening of July 7th, Orihime and Hikoboshi are allowed to reunite for one night only. In Japan, Tanabata is celebrated by decorating bamboo branches with origami ornaments and tanzaku, poems or wishes written on small strips of paper.
Or garden visitors will have the opportunity to write wishes and tie them to bamboo sticks in the garden.
Admission to the garden will be FREE all day for everyone on Thursday 7/7 for Free First Thursday, and for youth 12 and under from 10am-2pm on Saturday 7/9. Final entry to the garden is 45 minutes before closing.
EVENT SCHEDULE:
(All event schedule and activities are subject to change)
Visitors hanging their wishes on bamboo
THURSDAY 7/6
3:00pm - 6:30 pm Tanzaku Wishing Station
6:00 pm - 7:00 pm Opening reception and lecture by Taka Ishii from Awonoyoh
*Last entry to the Garden is 45 minutes before closing at 6:15pm.
FRIDAY 7/7
3:00 pm - 6:30 pm Tanzaku Wishing Station
4:00 pm - 5:30 pm Minowashi Paper Art and Crafts by Mariko Burnham
5:00 pm - 6:00 pm Shakuhachi Play by Hanz Araki
SATURDAY 7/8
10:00am - 2:00 pm Tanzaku Wishing Station
11:00 am - 11:45 am Puppet Show by Thistle Theatre
12:15 pm - 1:00 pm Taiko Drumming by Dekoboko Taiko
Admission to the garden will be FREE all day for everyone on Thursday 7/7 for Free First Thursday, and for youth 12 and under from 10am-2pm on Saturday 7/9. Final entry to the garden is 45 minutes before closing.
