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The latter bata portion is generally accepted to be from 機(hata, “a loom”). The hata reading for 機 changes to bata as an instance of rendaku (連濁).
The former tana portion may be from 棚(tana, “a shelf, or a board placed lengthwise in a bridge”), in reference to an ancient ritual whereby a maiden would weave a special cloth on a hata in order to secure a bountiful harvest, as an offering for a god coming across a body of water via a tana. A related theory states that tana is instead an alteration of 種(tane, “seed”). Yet another theory states that tana is an alteration of 手(ta, “hand”, unbound Old Japanese form) + な(na, Old Japanese possessive particle superseded by no).
The common spelling of 七夕 is an example of jukujikun, since the festival is held on the seventh night of the seventh month of the lunar calendar, now generally observed on 7 July.