七夕节 Qixi Festical
August 2 is not always special, but this year August 2 is the 7th day of the 7th lunar month in the Chinese calendar, Chinese Valentine’s Day or the Qixi Festical.
The love story for Qixi is about the 7th daughter of Emperor of Heaven and an orphaned cowboy. Believe it or not, everything begins with the cowboy’s shamelss behavior.
‘Bad boy’ steals girl’s clothes
The story began with the good-looking poor orphaned boy living with his elder brother and sister-in-law. The boy owned an old ox. He needed to work on the farm’s field with the ox everyday.
The 7th daughter of Emperor is good at handcrafting, especially weaving clothing. So she was called a weaving girl. The Emperor likes her skill to weave clouds and rainbows to beautify the world.
One day, Cowboy went to a brook and saw all 7 pretty daughters of Emperor came down from Heaven and took a bath in there.
Fascinated by the youngest and also the most beautiful one, he took away her fairy clothes secretly.
The other six fairies went away after bath. The youngest couldn't fly back without her fairy clothes.
If you want to call this a ‘proposal’
Cowboy appeared and told her that he would not return her clothes unless she promised to be his wife. After a little hesitation and with a mixture of shyness and eagerness, she agreed to the request from this handsome man.
They married and had two children two years later.
Emperor wants daughter back
One day, the Emperor found the sky's not beautiful as before without the 7th daughter weaving clouds and rainbows. He wanted his daughter's grandmother to find the missing daughter and bring her back.
While the 7th princess was flying to the Heaven with her grandmother, Cowboy took his children in two bamboo baskets with his wife's old fairy clothes and chased after his wife in the sky.
The grandmother made a milky way in the sky with her hairpin, which kept them separated. The 7th princess was moved to the star Vega in the Lyra (Harp) constellation. And Cowboy with his two children stayed in the star Altair in the Aquila (Eagle) constellation.
The star of Vega is known as the Weaving Girl Star and the star of Altair is as the Cowboy Star in China.
Once-a-year reunion
Some magpies were moved by their true love and many of them gathered and formed a bridge for the couple to meet on the evening of the 7th day of the 7th lunar month, which is the day the Emperor allowed them to meet once a year.
It is said that it's hard to find a magpie on Chinese Valentine's Day in China, because all magpies fly to make the bridge for the Weaving Girl and Cowboy.
The legend proves a lasting cultural legacy. Today in China, married couples who do not work and live in the same city are often metaphorically called Niulang (Cowboy) and Zhinv (Weaving Girl). When they get together, they are said to be dating on the magpie bridge.
How to celebrate
The legend of the Cowboy and the Weaving Girl makes the Qixi Festival the most romantic traditional Chinese festival.
Women in ancient China celebrated the day in many ways. Some took part in weaving competitions, becasue they looked at Weaving Girl as their model and wanted to be as skillful as her.
Some washed hair with water from the spring or rivers, for they belived that water fetched on the day is as holy as the water from the Milky Way, so they would be blessed by washing their hair with the holy water.
Women in southwestern China liked to dye their finger nails with floral dye, believing that this will make themselves pretty and unmarried girls will soon find a good husband.
Every Chinese festival comes with a special food. On the Qixi Festival, ancient Chinese people would eat qiaoguo, a kind of pastry made of flour and syrup. Qiaoguo had different shapes in different regions. Common shapes are melons and flowers.
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