Chilseok is a holiday celebrated on the seventh day of the seventh month of the lunar new year. This year, that falls on August 29th.
Mom would sometimes think of my birthday as lucky and would sometimes do a few Chilseok things today. And there’s a folk tale associated with it.
Long ago when tigers still spoke to people, the great king in heaven had a daughter named Jiknyeo. One day, while weaving a tapestry of exquisite beauty to hang in the sky, she looked out the window of the palace and saw a simple sheep and cow herder, Gyeonu on Earth. She immediately fell in love, and asked her father to marry Gyeonu. She appeared to him, a heavenly angel, and of course he fell in love with her too, she was quire beautiful after all. The pair spent their days idle, with Gyeonu letting his sheep and cows run wild and trample villages, and Jiknyeo no longer bothering to weave her exquisite tapestries, which left strange and ugly patches in the sky since she was no longer hanging her silks. The crowd and magpies of Earth admired their love, even as they saw the terribke consequences for humans of the couple’s idleness.
The king in heaven realized their loving union was trouble, and said that they could only be together one day of the year, the seventh day of the seventh month. Jiknyeo and Gyeonu parted, and would gaze lovingly across the milky way throughout the year, waiting for their special day. But when the day came, the King in Heaven refused to send Jiknyeo to Earth, and said Gyeonu should hust walk to visit them. Jiknyeo fled the castle in heaven, and cried for Gyeonu.
The crows and magpies, moved by Gyeonu’s lament and Jiknyeo’s tears, flew from Earth to sky, and let Gyeonu and Jiknyeo walk across their heads, where they could embrace and be in love on their special day. The humble birds vowed to do this for them every year, so they could bare witness to true love.
Tanabata is a Japanese holiday season that typically begins on July 7th, with the actual holiday following the tradition of the seventh day of the seventh month of the Lunar New Year. Many regions write poetry to hang from trees, and there’s often food and festitivities that stretch into the summer. Mom got mixed up a few times on my birthday, and cursed herself for remembering these Japanese things. But I always thought they were nice. And that no matter our troubles, she thought of my birthday as deserving a big celebration even if I still don’t.