🎋 Tanabata Tree

🎋 Tanabata Tree is one of the celebrations in Unicode's Activities group. It usually appears in messages about banner, celebration, japanese and tanabata. Further official keywords are tree.

🎋 fits messaging apps, social networks and anywhere a short visual cue helps. On SmileyZone it is filed under Fantasy and Fairy Tales. Added in 2010 with Emoji 0.6, it displays correctly on every up-to-date system. Its code point is U+1F38B.

• 🎋 on its own already flags the topic: banner.
• Fits messages about banner, celebration, japanese and tanabata.
• Often seen near 🎍 Pine Decoration, 🎉 Party Popper and 🎊 Confetti Ball.

The bamboo branch belongs to Tanabata, the Japanese star festival on 7 July. People write wishes on narrow paper strips called tanzaku and tie them to bamboo. The legend behind it tells of two lovers – the stars Vega and Altair – separated by the Milky Way and allowed to meet on this one day each year.

Used outside Japan, the emoji usually just means bamboo or summer. Its origin is a good deal more poetic.

• 🎋🎍 – Tanabata Tree and Pine Decoration
• 🎋🎑 – Tanabata Tree with Moon Viewing Ceremony
• 🎋🎐 – Tanabata Tree plus Wind Chime
• 🎋✨ – Tanabata Tree and Sparkles
• 🎋🎈 – Tanabata Tree with Balloon
• 🎋🧨 – Tanabata Tree plus Firecracker
• 🎋🧧 – Tanabata Tree and Red Envelope
• 🎋🎉 – Tanabata Tree with Party Popper

Easy to mix up with 🎍 Pine Decoration, 🎉 Party Popper or 🎊 Confetti Ball. They sit in the same Unicode subgroup and look similar at small sizes, so it is worth checking the name before sending.