Quizzing Qixi: The True Meaning of "Chinese Valentine’s Day"

ANDREW KILLEEN theBeijinger

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In case you missed it, today is Chinese Valentine’s Day. My first reaction to this was skepticism: another fake corporate greedfest dreamed up by vendors of chocolate and roses, another excuse to pile the guilt on busy and preoccupied partners. (“You mean you haven’t got me a present for Qixi?” “I didn’t even know it existed until I started writing about it.” And so on.)

However, while it might seem like just another corporate cash grab, its origin can actually be found in an ancient festival dating back to the Han dynasty, the story of which lies in one of China’s Four Great Folktales. What's more, it has the blend of oddity and charm characteristic of Chinese folklore.

Zhinv – whose name literally means Weaver Girl – was the seventh daughter of the Goddess and lived in heaven, where it was her job to weave the clouds. However, she found this a boring task, and one day she escaped from heaven and fled to earth.

While she was sitting by a river, a young cowherd named Niulang (which means cowherd – the Chinese are great believers in nominative determinism) saw her. The two, of course, fell in love, got married, and had two children.

Meanwhile, heaven was in an uproar as everyone searched for the missing weaver girl. When her mother found her living with a mortal, she was furious and dragged her back to heaven.

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Niulang was naturally devastated by the loss of his beloved wife. Then, one night, his ox began to talk to him, disclosing that if he wanted to ascend to heaven he needed to kill the ox and put on its skin. (What the ox’s motivation was here, is not recorded.)

Niulang took his two children and set off for heaven clad in the magic oxhide. The Goddess saw him coming though, and scratched a river in the sky with her hairpin to keep the lovers apart.

And they can all be seen in the night sky to this day: Zhinv as the star Vega, Niulang and his children as Altair and two smaller stars either side of it. The river in heaven separating them is the Milky Way.

However, the story has a happy ending of sorts. Once a year, on the seventh day of the seventh lunar month, all the magpies in the world fly up to heaven and form a bridge so that Zhinv and Niulang can meet. There, didn’t see that coming, did you?

The Qixi (Seven Sunset) festival is celebrated not only in China but also in Japan and Korea. Traditional merrymaking includes girls competing to thread needles in low light (how the long summer evenings must have flown by...).

Now, of course, it’s all about roses and chocolates and piling guilt on busy and preoccupied partners. We say, enough of this commercialism, let’s return to the true meaning of the festival. Come on, ladies! Needles out...