B93. Meeting in heaven once a year.. 17.21.22.26.27.29.34.38.

Once a year or every few years, celestials or messengers of the deity seen among the stars meet.

Iraqi Arabs, Meitei, Vietnamese, Thais, Shans, Koreans, Ancient Chinese and Chinese folklore, Bulgarians, Armenians, Mongols, Japanese.

Western Asia. Iraqi Arabs (Baghdad) [Sirius and Betelgeuse are Majnun and Leyla in love who meet in the sky one night a year]: Stark, 57 in Henninger 1954:91).

Tibet is the Northeast of India. Meitei [6 friends went to buy fish from six naga boys; the parents of the first two, Luwang Punsiba and Khomthok Laibak; the boys said they didn't catch anything today, offered to stay overnight; they became lovers; boys: if your fathers beat you (naga were considered untouchable), come on the fifth day to go up to heaven; girls climbed to the hills and then to heaven; sixth delayed giving birth to a cicada (the time when cicadas are cracking is associated with the rise/setting of the Pleiades); halfway they remembered that they had forgotten their weaving accessories; they fell out in the rain; got lost; reached Mount Sumeru; Soraren questioned them, turned them into Pleiades; when young men (now Orion stars who follow the Pleiades) reached him, S. said that there are no marriages in heaven and only once a year they and their lovers can descend to earth and join; their descendants will be cicadas]: Singh 1985:206-209.

Burma - Indochina. Vietnam: Karpov, Tkachev 1958 [the daughter of the god Thick Ny fell in love with shepherd Nguu Lang; God placed them on the opposite side of the Milky Way, the heavenly river; with pity, allowed them to meet on the seventh day seventh month; ordered the carpenters to build a bridge; they did not have time, God turned them into crows; on the seventh day of the seventh month, crows stretch out in a chain, TN and NL go along it towards each other; turned carpenters quarrel in ravens, plucked feathers out of each other's heads]: 321-322; Landes 1886, No. 47 [a young woodcutter sees heavenly fairies bathing in a spring; hides one of them's clothes, she has to go with him, he hides her clothes in a rice barn; when the child is three years old, the wife finds her clothes; leaving her son's comb, flies away; taking the boy, the husband comes to the spring; there the fairy maids came for with water, the boy throws his comb into their jug; the wife recognizes the comb, tells her husband to hand the handkerchief, with its help he flies to his wife; after a while she sends her husband and son to the ground in a drum tied by a rope, promising to ask Buddha for permission to marry a mortal; in the middle between earth and sky, the torons began to peck at the rice grains on the drum; fairy maids took this as a sign that those who descended reached the ground, cut the rope; father and son fell into the sea, died; as punishment, Phat Ba turned the fairy into a Morning Star; the husband became an Evening Star; every year in On the 15th day of the 7th month, maids make a sacrifice, and the vorons form a chain so that the couple and their son can get together and meet; therefore, crows have a bald head; on this day somewhere a funeral ceremony is mandatory; the Morning and Evening Stars are always eager to meet]: 123-126; Thais [the niece of the heavenly king Phra In (Indra) chose a shepherd as her husband; the father sent she to his ground; sent the Raven to tell the Raven that the couple should meet every seven days so that his wife would have time to spin and weave; the crow met the Vulture, was frightened, lost the letter; compiled new, writing in it that she was told to meet on the seventh day of the seventh month; Phra In punished her by losing all her feathers that day; turned her lovers into stars, they meet once a year]: Vathanaprida 1994:105-108; shans [the poor have a beautiful and modest daughter; she was carried away by a tiger, but she began to pray and he released her; she did not marry, but the gods gave her a son - Khun Shan Lo; when he grew up and was adopted by a rich man who began to help his family; his foster mother wants to marry KSL to an ugly, annoying but hard-working girl; he first goes on a trade expedition, falls in love marries; his wife, like the applicant chosen by the adoptive mother, is Nan Wu Pyin; a year later, the KSL went to visit his relatives; his adoptive mother did not let him go back; the pregnant wife came by herself; the mother-in-law put thorns in rice and the NUP wounded her hands; left home, gave birth, the child died; the NUP began to think: put the body in the water, become a fish; bury it as a frog; put it on a stump; the baby became a bird and called father: "Thawn Lo!" ; NUP returned home and died; CSL made it to the funeral and also died; mother-in-law placed a bamboo arc with three knots between the bodies of the couple; now there is a constellation of three stars, the two extreme ones are CSL and NUP; They meet with their son (a little star in the middle) every three years; {the interpretation is incredible; rather three stars are the Orion Belt and the son is Venus or another planet}]: Zapadova 1977:303-307.

China - Korea. Koreans [the king's daughter is Jinknyeo (Weaver), her father married her to Kyeonoo, a good shepherd; then he got angry with the young, sent his son-in-law east, daughter to the west; their tears cause heavy rains; they can to meet once a year on July 7, after which the rains stop; for this purpose, the crow and forty make a bridge out of their bodies; their heads are bald, as the Shepherd (Altair) and the Weaver (Vega) are stepping on them]: Choi 1979, no. 723:315; Chinese (ancient to modern times): Riftin 1972 [Nyu-lan's younger single brother works hard, the older married man eats well; the ox suggests that N. break the plow, plough, plough handle, plough, plough handle, return home early, eat what is cooked; the elder offers to share, the ox tells N. to take only him, the ox, to go south; says that on the seventh day of the seventh moon, the Southern Gate of Heaven, granddaughters, will open Wan-mu will arrive to wash clothes; the seventh from the west side is Zhi-nyu; N. hides her clothes, C. becomes his wife, her sisters fly away as doves; when her daughter is 6 years old and her son 3 C. offers N. return her clothes; N. returns, C. flies away; the ox tells him to slaughter, burn his bones, put on his skin, take his son and daughter in baskets; the guards of the heavenly gate (gold, silver lions, devil) say, I am the husband of your seventh aunt, and these are her children; you need to identify your wife among seven girls in the house; you have to let my son go, he will rush to suck his mother's breast; father-in-law suggests 1) hide; C. says that her father will first become a bug, then an apple in the chest; when it's N.'s turn to hide, C. turns him into a needle, her father-in-law does not find it; 2) race; you have to throw red seeds and sticks behind for food, father-in-law picks them up; at the end throw the hairpin in front of him; N. throws behind, a heavenly river appears; wife, children, mother-in-law remain on the other side; on the seventh day of the seventh moon, all birds rise to the sky, mother-in-law pulls a feather from each, builds a bridge from feathers - the Milky Way; N. (Volopas) and C. (Weaver); on the sixteenth day, C. returns, during which time he washes all the dishes (each item numbered 360), washes, darns the sky, an-mu's granddaughters will arrive to wash clothes; gray from the west]: 294-303; Wilhelm 1921, No. 16 [The shepherd (Kuhhirt) always has well-fed cows; in the mountains, a cow tells him that this evening nine daughters of the Jade Emperor are swimming in the sky; the seventh is spinning cloud silk for the Heavenly Lord and his wife, so she is the Weaver (die Spinnerin); the one who hides her clothes will become her husband; the cow brings the Shepherd to heaven, there are jade trees, jasper grass; the Shepherd hides the red The Weaver's robe; she agrees when, on the advice of a cow, asks willow if she can marry; willow replies that yes, it is the seventh evening; seven days later, the Weaver runs away to prepare clothes for Heavenly Lords; The Shepherd pursues, but she draws a line across the sky with a hairpin (Haarpfeile), a heavenly River, the Milky Way, appears; every seventh evening they meet again, at which time crows are not visible on earth, they all form a bridge across the heavenly river; the rain at this time is the tears of the Shepherd and the Weaver; once the Shepherd was angry at the Weaver that she did not cross him, threw a yoke at her; it can be seen in the form of stars under Weaver's feet; she also threw a spindle at him, it's under his feet]: 31-34; Williams 1974 [story by philosopher Huai Nan Tzu; "shepherd Ch'ien Niu (cow shepherd, Altair) and Chih Nü (maiden who spins, Vega) went down to earth, met, got married; returning to heaven, they did only each other, quit their jobs; the ruler and ruler of Heaven decided to separate them; their ruler a silver pin drew a line between them - the Milky Way, the river; the ruler took pity, allowed them to meet every seventh day of the seventh month; magpies make a bridge of their bodies in the morning of this day; tears lovers are the heavy rain that falls at this time"; two stars next to Vega are her children from Altair; Yangtze is the earthly extension of the Milky Way, whose waters become dirty when in contact with with earth; The spinning maiden is the patron of embroidery and weaving]: 373-374.

The Balkans. Bulgarians: Kovachev 1914 [1) Yankul and Yaninka were brother and sister; they were orphaned and separated as children; without getting to know each other, they got married; realizing that they were brother and sister, Yaninka became Venus in the morning, and Yankul is Jupiter or some other bright star; they meet every 7 years; 2) Stana and Milo (Miho) are brother and sister who were kidnapped and separated by the Turks as a child; they met and fell in love; during the wedding, the icons in the church moved, the candles went out; they turned to God and he made them Morning and Evening Venus; once a year they get closer; if they meet, an earthquake occurs]: 25; Stoynev 2006 [mother cursed the Moon and the Sun for wanting to marry as brother and sister; they meet once a year on the summer solstice]: 194.

Caucasus - Asia Minor. Armenians [there are two stars in the Gemini constellation who, while married, always quarrel and live separately; but once a year, on the same night, at God's behest, they converge together all animals, plants, mountains and waters rejoice in their date time; if anyone is awake and sees, his wish will come true; one man asked to turn his iron shovel into gold, but instead said "in a wooden one" and was left without a shovel]: Zelinsky 1882, No. 1:40-41.

Southern Siberia - Mongolia. The Mongols [six brothers went to study; five returned: a clairvoyant who knows what is happening in the world, able to travel to any place that becomes invisible, does any desires; found out that the sixth brother married a beautiful woman, they are threatened by snakes on the island; they defeated the snake, returned brother and wife; everyone argues that the beauty should be his; that offers to become stars, she will be Venus, comet brothers, will meet once a year]: Skorodumova 2003:26-28.

Japan. Japanese: Borovkov 1937 [(trans. Conrad); the prince's maid washed clothes in the river; a serpent from the river told her to give the prince a letter demanding that one of her daughters be married to him; the youngest Otohime agreed; the serpent ordered him to cut his skin, went out young man; said that he is the son of a dragon, Prince Boopas, must go to heaven with his father for 7 days; if he is not 21 days old, he will never return; left the casket, did not tell him to open it; if you go to witch by the oak tree, ask her for a ladle, you can use it to reach him in heaven; O.'s sisters beg her to open the box, steam comes out of it; her husband does not return, O. finds a ladle, climbs sky, asks for directions from various stars; Boopas hides his wife from his father, who finds her, gives tasks, her husband helps to complete; 1) drive a thousand oxen into stalls; 2) carry a thousand coca of rice (ants endure); 3) spend the night in a house with centipedes; the dragon agrees to leave O. Boopas's wife, but allows him to meet once a month; O. hears that once a year; the dragon creates a river - the Milky Way; O. (Star Weaver) meets Boopas on the seventh day of the seventh month]: 149-161; Ikeda 1971 [(59 versions); a man goes to the lake (1) after praying to give him a wife, (2) having received a divine revelation, because he is honest and hardworking, (3) sent by a deer (badger) whom he saved his life; sees girls bathing, hides clothes from one of them's feathers, she has to marry him; they sons are born (one to seven); she learns from children where her clothes are; in some versions she understands a hint from a song that the child sings; flies away with her children; gives her husband instructions on how get to the sky: (1) by making 1,000 straw sandals or collecting a thousand oxen, the plant will grow to the sky, (2) or by planting a magic seed; (1) the husband slightly violates his instructions, for example by cooking only 999 sandals, but reaches the sky with the help of a dog or wife looking out the window; (2) climbs a magical plant whose seed was left by his wife; (3) a rope descends from the sky ( bucket, basket) pick up the remaining child (and husband); father-in-law gives difficult assignments 1) cut down the forest under the field in a day, plow the field in a day, grow melons in a day, harvest them in a day; wife helps do it all; (2) he must identify his wife among her sisters who look the same; the bee he saved points to his wife; he is told not to eat melons; he cuts one, a stream gushes out of her, husband and wife stay on opposite sides of the Milky Way; can only meet once a year, on the eve of July 7, when the stars celebrate; some versions end with episode (1) marrying a heavenly girl, (2 ) her return to heaven, (3) the man's reunion with his wife and children in heaven; (4) if the father-in-law puts her son-in-law to the test, he usually fails the latter, so he and his wife remain separated Heavenly River (Milky Way); but if a grateful animal helps him, it overcomes everything; the plot is recorded in many written monuments, the earliest is the 8th century fudoks; (Markova 2000, No. 6 [typical variant]: 27-32)]: 96-97.