In Utsusemi, the image of the river is conflated with the famous Tanabata legend about the Herdsman and Weaver Maiden (The stars Altair and Vega), who are allowed to meet only once a year, on the seventh day of the Seventh Month, when a magpie forms a bridge for them with its wings across the Milky Way. The Japanese view of the galaxy as a river, amanogawa ("river of heaven"), encourages assocation of the legend with Utsusemi's story. Under the old lunar calendar, the meeting of the stars occurred in the first month of autumn, and the season in Utsusemi accordingly has been changed from summer to autumn.