| Qixi Festival | |
|---|---|
| Official name | Qīxī Jié (七夕節) |
| Also called | Chinese Valentine's Day (情人节) |
| Observed by | Chinese |
| Date | 7th day of 7th lunar month |
| 2012 date | August 6 |
| 2013 date | August 23 |
| Related to | Chilseok, Thất Tịch, Tanabata |
| Qixi Festival | |||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Traditional Chinese | 七夕節 | ||||||||||||||
| Simplified Chinese | 七夕节 | ||||||||||||||
| Literal meaning | night of sevens | ||||||||||||||
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Qixi Festival (Chinese: 七夕节; literally "The Night of Sevens"), also known as Magpie Festival, falls on the seventh day of the seventh lunar month on the Chinese calendar; thus its name. It inspired Tanabata (七夕) in Japan, Chilseok (칠석) in Korea, and Thất Tịch in Vietnam. It has sometimes been called Chinese Valentine's Day (Chinese: 情人节; pinyin: Qíng rén jié) since the late 1990s.
Girls traditionally demonstrate their domestic arts, especially melon carving, on this day and make wishes for a good husband. It is also known by the following names:
In 2012, this festival falls on August 23.
Contents |
See also: The Princess and the Cowherd
In late summer, the stars Altair and Vega are high in the night sky, and the Chinese tell the following love story, of which there are many variations:
A young cowherd, hence Niulang (Chinese: 牛郎; pinyin: niú láng; literally "[the] cowherd"), came across a beautiful girl--Zhinü (Chinese: 織女; pinyin: zhī nǚ; literally "[the] weavergirl"), the seventh daughter of the Goddess, who just had escaped from boring heaven to look for fun. Zhinü soon fell in love with Niulang, and they got married without the knowledge of the Goddess. Zhinü proved to be a wonderful wife, and Niulang to be a good husband. They lived happily and had two children.
But the Goddess of Heaven (or in some versions, Zhinü's mother) found out that Zhinü, a fairy girl, had married a mere mortal. The Goddess was furious and ordered Zhinü to return to heaven. (Alternatively, the Goddess forced the fairy back to her former duty of weaving colorful clouds, a task she neglected while living on earth with a mortal.)
On Earth, Niulang was very upset that his wife had disappeared. Suddenly, his ox began to talk, telling him that if he killed it and put on its hide, he would be able to go up to Heaven to find his wife.
Crying bitterly, he killed the ox, put on the skin, and carried his two beloved children off to Heaven to find Zhinü. The Goddess discovered this and was very angry. Taking out her hairpin, the Goddess scratched a wide river in the sky to separate the two lovers forever, thus forming the Milky Way between Altair and Vega.
Zhinü must sit forever on one side of the river, sadly weaving on her loom, while Niulang watches her from afar while taking care of their two children (his flanking stars β and γ Aquilae or by their Chinese names Hè Gu 1 and Hè Gu 3).
But once a year all the magpies in the world would take pity on them and fly up into heaven to form a bridge (鵲橋, "the bridge of magpies", Que Qiao) over the star Deneb in the Cygnus constellation so the lovers may be together for a single night, which is the seventh night of the seventh moon.
Qixi originated during the Han Dynasty. It came from people's worship of the stars. On Qixi, a festoon is placed in the yard and single or newly married women in the household makes an offering to Niulang and Zhinü consisting of fruit, flowers, tea, and face powder. After finishing the offering, half of the face powder is thrown on the roof and the other half divided among the young women of the household. It is believed that by doing this, the women are bound in beauty with Zhinü.
Another tradition is for girls to throw a sewing needle into a bowl full of water on the night of Qixi as a test of embroidery skills. If the needle floats on top of the water instead of sinking, it proves the girl is a skilled embroideress. Single women also pray for finding a good husband in the future. And the newly married women pray to become pregnant quickly.
People say that on this day it will rain, because of the crying in heaven. Others say that if you stand under grapevines on this night, you can hear the lovers talking.
The seventh day of the seventh lunar month falls on:
In Vietnam, this day is called ngày "Ngưu Lang Chức Nữ" (Niu Lang Zhi Nu day in Mandarin). The tale is about a pair of lovers: Ngưu Lang, who is the Jade Emperor's buffalo man and an outstanding bamboo fluter, and Chức Nữ, who is responsible for fabric weaving. They were too passionate for each other to do their work well. Because of this lost productivity, the Jade Emperor became angry and decided that they must live on opposite sides of Ngân Hà (Ngân river aka the Milky Way). But later the Jade Emperor felt sorry for them and permitted them to meet each other once a year on the 7th day of the 7th month of the lunar year.
However, they are unable to cross the Milky Way on their own. Thus the Jade Emperor ordered crows and racket-tailed treepies to build a bridge across the Milky Way. From then on, the bridge has the name cầu Ô Thước ("Crow and Pie Bridge").
Every year, when they meet each other, the lovers weep. Their tears fall from the sky and make a special kind of rain on this day: "mưa ngâu" ("continual rain" — a rain that lasts a long time).
Two other days have, or had, romantic associations in Chinese-culture region: Valentine's Day on February 14th, borrowed from the West, and Lantern Festival Day (元宵節). Lantern Day falls on the 15th day of the Lunar New Year, on which unmarried girls were traditionally permitted to appear in public unescorted and thus have a chance to meet eligible bachelors. While in modern Chinese culture, such limitations for females no longer exist, the day, which also marks the end of Lunar New Year celebrations, is still lightly observed in some Chinese regions.