Qixi Festival: Chinese Valentine’s Day

By Zeng Pengling

Qixi Festival, Chinese Valentine’s Day, is a special day of romance and sweetness for those who are in love. It is also the only day of reunion for the Cowherd and the Girl Weaver, a man-fairy couple from a Chinese legend,who met with each other on the Magpie Bridge in the moonlight.

The seventh day of the seventh lunar month of the lunar calendar is called Qixi. Because the main activity on this day is qiqiao(a ritual ceremony to pray for smartness and skillfulness), and the participants in the rite are mostly women, it is also called Qiaoqiao Festival or Girl’s Day.As one of the traditional festivals,Qixi has been passed down for thousands of years, which demonstrates Chinese people’s longing for love and passion in life.

Qixi Festival dates back to the Han Dynasty. In ancient China,when it was Qixi Festival, women would call on their bosom friends,show their thread work to each other, and pray for their families to be happy and for good luck.

The origin of this festival comes from the worship of nature and the stars. Later this is incorporated into the legend of the Cowherd and the Girl Weaver,and thus Qixi became a festival for love.

七夕——中國情人節

文/曾鵬凌

七夕，一個氤氳著浪漫與甜蜜的節日。歲月匆匆，“一處相思，兩處閑愁”，化為一載相思濃。千年等待的牛郎，殷殷期盼的織女，在這柔情似水的七月七日夜，相會鵲橋，互訴衷腸。七夕相聚的甜蜜，如那壇醞釀千年的桂花酒，醉了夜色，也醉了月光下的蕓蕓眾生。

每年農歷的七月初七，稱為七夕，又稱乞巧節、女兒節。七夕是中國傳統節日之一，已傳承千年，它積淀了中國人的感情向往與對生活的詮釋。

七夕始于漢朝，因為該節日主要活動為“乞巧”，活動參與者多為女性，故又稱“乞巧節”、“女兒節”。在古代中國，每至七夕，婦女會訪閨中密友，切磋女紅技藝，乞巧祈福。

七夕源于中國人對自然和星辰的崇拜，后來又融入了牛郎織女傳說，成為象征愛情的節日。

傳說，孤兒牛郎與一頭老牛相依為命，自耕自食。有一天，織女和諸仙女下凡嬉戲，在河中沐浴。牛郎與織女邂逅，兩人互生愛意，不久結為夫妻。婚后，他們男耕女織，育一兒一女，生活美滿幸福。不料王母娘娘查知此事，命令押解織女回天庭受審。牛郎家中那頭老牛很通靈性，它觸斷頭上的犄角，變成一只小船，讓牛郎挑著兒女，乘船上天追趕。

眼看要追上織女，王母娘娘拔下頭上的金釵，在天空劃出一條波濤滾滾的銀河。牛郎無法渡過銀河，只能在河邊與織女遙望對泣。他們堅貞的愛情感動了喜鵲，無數喜鵲飛來，搭成一道跨越天河的鵲橋，讓牛郎織女在橋上相會。王母娘娘無奈，只得允許牛郎織女每年七月七日，可于鵲橋會面一次。這便是牛郎織女的愛情傳說，也是中國古代民間四大愛情故事之一。

In the legend, there was an orphan, named Dong Yong. He lived together with an old ox,and was thus called Cowherd.One day, the Girl Weaver, one of seven sister fairies, and her sisters danced and bathed in a river. The Cowherd met the Girl Weaver unexpectedly, and the two fell in love and soon became husband and wife. After marriage, the Cowherd did the farm work and the Girl Weaver engaged in spinning and weaving,raising their daughter and son.Unfortunately, their marriage did not obtain permission from the Fairy Mother Queen, mother of the Girl Weaver. Instead, the Fairy Mother Queen demanded the Girl Weaver to end her relationship with the Cowherd and sent guards to bring her back to the Celestial Land. The intelligent old ox of the Cowherd cracked the horns off its head,and they turned into a small flying boat into which the Cowherd could put the children and catch up with the Girl Weaver.

When the Cowherd was about to meet with his wife, the Fairy Mother Queen took out a golden hair pin which she cast back to make the impassable Milky River in the sky. The Cowherd could not cross the river and could only watch his wife from the riverside,full of tender affection. Their touching love moved the magpies so that thousands of magpies flew to the Milky River and the Magpie Bridge was formed. It was there the Cowherd and the Girl Weaver met again. The Fairy Mother Queen could do nothing but allow the Cowherd and the Girl Weaver to meet on the seventh of the seventh lunar month of every year. The love story of the Cowherd and the Girl Weaver is one of the Four Love Legends in China.

The Cowherd and the Girl Weaver can only meet once a year, so Qixi symbolizes pure and everlasting love of human kind. Through multi-ethnic exchanges, the legend of the Cowherd and the Girl Weaver has also spread to areas inhabited by ethnic minorities in China,and influenced the culture in Japan, North Korea, Vietnam, the Philippines, Indonesia, Malaysia,and other Asian countries.

During the Tang and Song Dynasties, Qixi Festival gained popularity among the people.There are nearly two hundred classic poems on the theme of Qixi. For example, in the Tang Dynasty, the great poet Du Mu once wrote, “The steps seem stepped in water when cold grows the night, she lies watching heart-broken stars shed tears in the sky.” While Qin Guan in Song Dynasty chanted, “Their tender love flows like a stream;this happy date seems but a dream. Can they bear a separate homeward way? If love between both sides can last for aye, why need they stay together night and day?” During the Ming and Qing Dynasties, operas likeMarriage of the Fairy PrincessandThe Palace of Eternal Youthhave been produced and played.

星河中的織女星與牽牛星 Vega and Altair in the galaxy

古代婦女于七夕會訪、乞巧In ancient times, women would pay visit to their friends, and qiqiao, which is an activity to pray for smartness and skillfulness on Qixi Festival.

牛郎織女一年只能在七夕這天相會一次，因此，七夕象征著堅貞不渝的愛情。牛郎織女的傳說，也隨著民族交流，傳至西北、東北、西南的各少數民族聚居區，并影響了日本、朝鮮、越南、菲律賓、印尼、馬來西亞等國家。

唐宋時期，七夕節日最為盛行。以七夕為主題的詩詞近兩百首。如唐代杜牧詩云：“天階夜色涼如水，坐看牽牛織女星。”宋代秦觀詞云：“柔情似水，佳期如夢，忍顧鵲橋歸路！兩情若是久長時，又豈在朝朝暮暮！”明清時，出現了《天仙配》、《長生殿》等七夕節令戲。