Bet You Didn't Know This About Qixi Festival

Today is Chinese Valentine’s Day, in bygone days, Qixi was not only a special day for lovers, but also for girls. It is also known as the "Begging for Skills Festival" or "Daughters' Festival."

What is Chinese Valentine’s Day about?

Sounds like a daft question, but this day actually stems from a romantic story from Chinese mythology of two lovers, Zhinü (織女 zhī nǚ), meaning ‘weaver maid,’ and Niulang (牛郎牛 niú lánɡ ), meaning ‘cowherd.’ Like Romeo and Juliet, their love was forbidden. 

Unlike the ‘star-crossed lovers’ however, Niulang managed to put a ring on it and survive: he and Zhinü did actually get married and have kids. Upon discovering this, the Goddess of Heaven banished them to different sides of the Silver River (the Milky Way), and they were only permitted to meet once a year, when a flock of magpies would carry Niulang and their two children to see Zhinü. 

In the past, girls would conduct a ceremony to beg Zhinu for wisdom, dexterity and a satisfying marriage in the future.

This was not the case all over China, as the festival varied from region to region.

In some parts of Shandong Province, young women offered fruit and pastries to pray for a bright mind. If spiders were seen to weave webs on sacrificial objects, it was believed the Waving Girl was offering positive feedback.

In other regions, seven close friends would gather to make dumplings. They put into three separate dumplings a needle, a copper coin and a red date, which represented perfect needlework skills, good fortune and an early marriage.

Girls also held weaving and needlework competitions to see who had the best hands and the brightest mind, both prerequisites for making a good wife and mother in ancient China.

Young women in southern China used to weave small handicrafts with colored paper, grass and thread.

Afterwards, they competed to pass a thread through the eyes of seven needles in a single breath.

Different regions in China have their own way of celebrating Qixi Festival:

Shaanxi

Needle cutting, line cutting and window cutting

Photo credit: 凤凰财经

In the Loess Plateau area of Shaanxi Province, there is also a custom of holding various begging activities on the night of the Tanabata Festival. Women often tie up herbalists who wear floral clothes, so-called Qiaogu, not only to provide melons and fruits, but also to plant bean sprouts and green onions. On the night of the Tanabata Festival, all the women carry a bowl of clear water, cut beans and green onions, put them in the water and watch the moon. The shadow of the object of investment leads to a clever and unlucky life. It also goes through needles and lines, and competes. At the same time, there are also activities to cut window flowers using skillful hands.

Photo credit: sysd.com

Zhejiang

Picking dew

In Zhejiang rural areas, the custom of using the washbasin to expose dew is popular. Legend has it that the dew on Tanabata Festival is a collection of the tears shed by the Cowherd and the Weaver Girl when they would meet. If they are put on their eyes and hands, they can make them bright.

Photo credit: jiangsu.china.com.cn

Taiwan

Workshop 'bed mother'

Obeying the bed mother is one of the customs of the seventh day festival in Taiwan. Bed mother is bed God, July 7th is the bed mother's birthday. Bed mothers are the patron saints of children, and usually families with children are protected by "bed mothers" until the child is sixteen years old. In folk custom, the mother can pray for children to grow up safely.

Photo credit: nanrenwo.com

Guangzhou

Introduce fairy

Guangzhou's Qiqiao Festival has its own characteristics. Before the festival comes, girls prepare colored paper, straw, thread and so on to make various exquisite little things. They also put grain and mung beans into small boxes to soak them in water and make them germinate. When the buds grow to two inches long, they are used to worship the gods. They are called "worship the immortals" and "worship the divine dishes.

" From the sixth night to the seventh night, two nights in a row, the girls put on new clothes and new jewelry, and after everything is arranged, they burn incense and light candles, kneel to the stars, call "greeting immortals," from the third to fifth, to worship seven times. After worshiping immortals, the girls hold colored lines against the lights and shadows to thread through the pinholes, such as breath can pierce seven pinholes called Qiao, known as skillful hands, less than seven pinholes called Shuqiao. After the seventh day of the seventh lunar month, the girls presented each other's little handicrafts and toys to show their friendship.

Jiangsu

Clean water viewing shadow is skillful

The Qiqiao activity in the Jiangsu area is to get a bowl of water in the sun, and to spend the night in the open air. That is to say, picking up fine grass sticks floating in the water depending on the shadow to make sure that it is skillful. There are also many young women who use small needles to see the shadow of the bottom of the needle. The Han nationality in other areas also adopts this way of fulfilling their wisdom.

Guangxi

Storage water, red head rope seven knots

In some areas of Guangxi, it is customary to store water on the seventh day of the lunar calendar. It is believed that the "double seventh" water bath can eliminate disasters and rid you of diseases. Wearing seven knots of red around your head and neck, the weak and sick children often pray for good health and good luck.

Zhejiang

Listen quietly under the pumpkin shed

In rural areas of Shaoxing, many young girls will hide under the booming pumpkin shed one night. If they can hear the whispers of the Cowherd and the Weaver Girl meeting in the dead of night, the young girl who is to be married will be able to get the unswerving love of the millennium in the future.

We can see that the same festival in different places have different customs, they reflect the ancient wisdom of the local people, used a unique way to show their love. 

Although these customs are gradually forgotten, some people even thought such custom is ridiculous. But they also have unique loveliness. 

Compared with today's young people, they only go shopping and watch movies. 

I feel that the ancient Qixi is much more wonderful.

Source: GuideinChina, 凤凰财经

Supervisor: Crystal Huang

Editor: 

Co-Editor: Ed Bellin

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