Picture This

This story explains the apparent coming together of these two stars Vega (in the constellation Lyra) and Altair (in the constellation Aquila) during the summer months. It also explains the disappearance of crows in the summer and the rains.

A Weaver Girl lived with the immortals and wove the most beautiful garments for the Royal Court. The Sky King was delighted with her work, but worried that she worked too hard decides to reward her diligence by giving her a rest from her labours and sending her down to earth to live amongst the mortals.

On Earth she meets and falls in love with a simple herdsman, so when it is time for her to return to the heavens she pleads with the Sky King to allow him to come with her and tend the royal herd. The Sky King agrees to her terms, but soon the young lovers forget their duties and the Sky King flies into a rage. He banishes the boy and in order to prevent him from ever returning he blows an arc of stars across the sky to separate them for all eternity, this celestial river he names the Milky Way.

The Sky King then decreed that once a year, on the seventh day of the seventh lunar month all magpies in the world would fly up into the heavens and form a bridge across the Milky Way, so that the two could be reunited. Whenever they met the weaver girl weeps tears of joy and they fall as rain on earth.