A Comparative Study Of Tanabata Culture In China, Japan And Korea

To know a country, it is important to understand its culture. There has been a long history between Sino-Japanese relationship, which are both in the circle of Confucianism. Meanwhile, Japan and Koran have been influenced by Chinese advanced civilization.Culture is not passed down as it was originally, but changes as time goes by. Japan mixed the culture from China with its local custom, and also made some changes, then it’s own unique culture formed. So from the perspective of ethnology, the variability and continuity of culture can be seen. Magpie Festival is a traditional Chinese festival, as well as one of the four great legends, which tells the love story between the cow boy and the girl weaver. Also in the field of folk art, Magpie Festival plays a significant part. On May 20,2006, the Chinese State Council declared Magpie Festival to be National Intangible Cultural Heritage.Tanabata Festival (Magpie Festival) was spread from China to Korea and Japan, where Tanabata Festival were also treated as a folk festival. Especially in Japan, Tanabata Festival is celebrated as a traditional festival. Tanabata Festival is also called The Begging Festival and the Daughter’s Day. On July 7 according to lunar calendar, young ladies did sewing work and enshrined fruits to the moon. But now, Tanabata Festival is celebrated to be the western Valentine’s Day and many activities for lovers are held. In recent years, some people advocate that in order to protect China’s traditional custom, Tanabata Festival should be celebrated as the Begging Festival and the Daughter’s Day like in ancient times. Consequently, the culture of Tanabata Festival has been recognized by citizens, and also draw attention of scholars. As one of the Chinese traditional festivals, Magpie Festival is popular to citizens, and is also National Intangible Cultural Heritage, so we should think more highly of this traditional festival.The origin, inheritance and development of Tanabata Festival change as the country that absorbed it changes. As it’s known to all, Japan and Korea inherited and made new development of Tanabata Festival. The study of the Tanabata culture is beneficial for drawing public attention to traditional festivals.This thesis compares the characters of Tanabata culture of Japan and China. There are five chapters. Chapter one introduces the goal and meaning of the study, as well as some previous study and study methods. Chapter two is an introduction of Tanabata Festival, including its origin, development and the culture spread to Japan. Chapter three talks about the common and different points of Tanabata legend of China, Japan and Korea. Chapter four illustrates the cultural feature of Tanbata culture in China,Japan and Korea.The last chapter makes a summary of the whole paper.