Cowherd Weaver

myth:cowherd_weaver

The star-crossed lovers made literally stars: the Weaver Girl and the Cowherd, set by the gods on opposite banks of the Heavenly River — the Milky Way — and allowed to meet but one night a year, when the magpies fly up to bridge the stream. Their stars are Vega and Altair, and their meeting is the festival of Tanabata. The metaphor of Romeo and Juliet, written across the actual sky. — Chinese/Japanese myth