The tragic tale behind Chinese Valentine's Day

Discover the legend of China's most romantic holiday

Qixi, aka Chinese Valentine's Day, has been celebrated in China on the seventh day of the seventh month in the lunar calendar since the Han Dynasty ruled over 2,000 years ago – aww, who knew the Han Dynasty were such a bunch of hopeless romantics.

Like all good celebrations, this one's got a good back story – the romantic (and tragic) legend behind Qixi has been flying around for much longer than Qixi, itself. Here's how it goes...

One day a fairy in the sky got bored, so she decided to take a break from her fairy duties to become a mortal. Without telling anyone – even her mum – she snuck out of the sky and headed for earth to become a weaver girl (zhinü, 织女). Pretty naughty, really.

The fairy-turned-weaver girl loved her life as a human and she met the love of her life, a hard-working cow-herder (niulang, 牛郎).

Zhinü and Niulang – as they became affectionately titled – made a wonderful couple. They married and had two kids, Zhinü was a good wife and Niulang a loving husband. Still no word to her mum, though.

But Zhinü's mother (the Goddess of Heaven) did eventually find out and in a fit of rage she forced Zhinü to go back to the sky immediately.

Note to self: never hide things from mum.

As you can imagine, Niulang was devastated by the sudden disappearance of his one true love. One day, while Niulang grieved his loss, he realised that his ox was talking to him – of course.

The wise ox said, 'If you kill me and put my hide on, you'll be able to go to Heaven to find your wife'. Niulang did what his ox-friend said. He took the life of his trusty ox and headed for the heavens – two children in tow – to be with his beloved wife.

But it didn't stop there.

Remember: mothers know everything. So it was only natural that Zhinü's mum found out about Niulang's journey to heaven. In typical unimpressed-tiger-mama fashion, she flew into a rage, again.

Using her hairpin, she drew a divide in the sky to keep Niulang from ever coming over to find Zhinü – according to the legend, if not prevailing scientific evidence, this divide is what we see now as the Milky Way.

Zhinü and Niulang became separated forever. We know, right – hardly the happy ending you were expecting, but it does get a bit better.

All the magpies in the world had heard the heartbreaking story and felt so much pity for the star-crossed lovers that they came up with a cunning plan. Every year on the seventh day of the seventh month of the lunar calendar, they would fly high into the skies to bridge the gap between Zhinü and Niulang, allowing them to be together for the night – saucy.

Certainly makes us glad we don't have an angry goddess for a mother.

So, on the seventh day of the seventh month in the lunar calendar (August 17, this year) we shower our loved ones with gifts to show how much we love them – not materialistic at all.

For what to do in Beijing this Qixi, hit 'Read more'.

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