A origami festival, where more than 40 origami presenters will teach the craft over tea, comes to Cal State Long Beach on July 12.
“It’s a colorful and fun event, with lots of demonstrations and hands-on activities for adults and kids,” said Anne Ambrose, CSULB external communications editor. “Many of the expert creations are quite intricate.”
This year the origami festival will display beautiful cranes on “pillows” of origami flowers that hang from branches at the Earl Burns Miller Japanese Garden. The cranes will be on sale as a garden fundraiser, according to Alison Redfoot, assistant director for education.
The origami festival will also feature items made with recycled paper, such as chopstick wrappers and geometric origami forms ranging from simple to complex, according to Redfoot.
“The objective of the Earl Burns Miller Japanese Garden origami festival is to expose the Long Beach community to both this traditional yet innovative art form along with the history and culture of Japan and Japanese gardens,” Redfoot said.
The origami festival has come to CSULB for more than 15 years, according to Redfoot. The festival started with one table and one presenter, and this year there will be more than 40 origami specialists and enthusiasts.
“People around the world create origami and value it as a cultural, artistic and skillful form of traditional Japanese art,” Redfoot said. “Visitors will be treated to a rare opportunity to learn numerous origami paper folds in a beautiful setting with expert guidance.”
The funds are used to support the education department, which hosts annual events such as the origami festival, the chrysanthemum festival and the koi auction, according to Redfoot.
Guests will also experience the star festival, or Tanabata, usually celebrated every July 7 across Japan.
Tanabata started 1,300 years ago in Japan, but the custom originally came from China, Redfoot said. The story of Tanabata talks about how the weaver star, Vega, and the cow-herder star, Altair, fall in love but are separated by the Milky Way, according to Redfoot.
“They are only allowed to cross the river and see each other one day a year, on the seventh day of the seventh month,” Redfoot said.
To reflect the Japanese people’s hope and prayers that the wind will carry wishes off to the sky to be granted by Vega and Altair, event participants will be able to write on bright strips of paper, or tanzaku, and hang them from the garden’s bamboo plants nestled along the pathway to the tea house, according to Redfoot.
Admission to the festival is $7 for adults; $6 for seniors; $5 for garden members; and free for children 12 and under. The origami festival will run from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.
E-mail addresses are used only to notify you of replies and are not displayed
Comments powered by Disqus