The Star Festival

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The poor herdsman who is now a star on one side of the Milky Way

Goes across the Heavenly River once a year on the night of July 7

To meet a princess who lives on the other side of the river.

Why the meeting of the two only once a year?

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The Chinese legend explains thus:

The heavenly princess once lived on the Earth as a weaving girl.

She then met with the herdsman and fell in love with him.

But her mother in heaven did not like her meeting with the poor herdsman.

She called her daughter back to Heaven.

The herdsman chased her with all his might.

The mother saw him coming and built a fence of starts

To stop the herdsman from coming to the princess.

The fence was the Milky Way, or the Heavenly River, impossible for the herdsman to cross.

But the magical power of a skinny cow the herdsman took loving care of

Helped him go across the river to meet the princess.

But sadly, the magical power can work only once a year

On the night of July 7.

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The fragments of the joy and happiness of the man and princess when they meet spill over us earthlings, and we celebrate the night as:

The Star Festival.

By writing our wishes on slips of paper and hang them to the branches of bamboos.

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People say your wish for seeing the herdsman moving as a star across the Heavenly River to see the princess tonight will come true.

If your wishes really come true or not, you have to wait and see.

But you certainly know that a heavenly romance of a much bigger scale is actually taking place now in the sky.

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Instead of the herdsman and the princess, Jupitar and his wife Juno are meeting!

It’s the first meeting between Jupitar and Juno since the beginning of the universe billions and billions of years ago.

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And, thanks to the NASA scientists, it’s not a legend but a true story.

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Juno left the Earth some five years ago to meet Jupitar.

She flew at an unimaginable speed to her husband.

She is now close to him. But apparently to tease him, she is circling around him.

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I am not a scientist.

I am simply so moved by this greatest romance ever took place in the universe that tears are welling up in my eyes.

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I hope a drop of tear or two fall off from the eyes of all the earthlings at this romance.

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May some fragments of the joy of the greatest romance in the universe fall upon us all, so that we may all be filled with the power to wipe off all the causes of wars and global warming from this tiny planet of ours called Earth.

(AshiAkira, July 7, 2016)

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