Although its main purpose today is to write wishes on as a part of the Tanabata festival (the star festival celebrated on the seventh of July), actually thick and decorated pieces of paper, on which tanka and haiku poems are written, are also a kind of tanzaku.
しかし、現代では願い事を書く目的で七夕の行事の一環として用いることがほとんどであるが、実は短歌や俳句を詠むための分厚く装飾が施されたものも短冊の一種である。