QiXi?
What’s that?
Qixi is a traditional festival full of romance. It
has sometimes been called Chinese Valentine’s Day. The festival is celebrated
on the seventh day of the seventh lunar month of Chinese calendar.
Schedule of QiXi Festival
The seventh day of the seventh lunar month falls on:
- 6 August 2011
- 23 August 2012
- 13 August 2013
- 2 August 2014
- 20 August 2015
- 9 August 2016
- 28 August 2017
- 17 August 2018
- 7 August 2019
- 25 August 2020
QiXi also known as:
- Magpie Festival
- The Night of Sevens
- The Festival to Plead for Skills
- The Seventh Sister's Birthday
- The Night of Skills
- Young Girls' Day
Years and years ago, there was a poor
cowherd, who only had an old cow as the company after his parents died.
However, the cow had magic power. One day, it told the cowherd that a group of
fairies would bathe in the Green Lotus Pool nearby, and the one in red
would be his wife.
The cowherd followed the cow's words to hide the red clothes while they were playing in the pool. Eventually, the cowherd and the fairy fell in love with each other. They got married, lived happily, and had a boy and a girl.
The cow was finally old to death. Before death, it told the couple to keep the hide, and they would fly into the sky wearing it.
Finally, the Emperor of the Heaven knew about the couple, and ran into rage, because Zhi Nu was his daughter. He sent soldiers to seize Zhi Nu back. The husband hastily took their two children and wore the hide, flying into the sky to pursue his wife.
When they almost caught up with her, the Queen Mother used a gold hairpin to draw a line between them, and the line immediately turned into a large river, i.e. the Milky Way between Altair and Vega.
As a result, the husband never passed the river. For hundreds of years, he could only watch his wife from afar while taking care of their two children, and she wove rosy clouds on her loom on the other side days and nights.
Eventually, the Emperor was moved by their real love, so permitted the whole family to reunite once a year on July 7th. (Ancient Chinese worship the time. In their concept, double sevens meant happiness.)
Tradition of qixi
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."
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.
Young woman in southern China used to
weave small handicrafts with colored paper, grass and thread.
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.
In some Chinese provinces, people believe that decorating
flowers on an ox's horn during Chinese Valentine's Day enables them to prevent
disaster. On the night of Valentine's Day, women wash their hair to give it a
fresh and shiny appearance. Children wash their face the morning after
Valentine's Day using the overnight water from their backyards to have a much
more naturally beautiful appearance. Girls throw five-coloured ropes, made
during Chinese Dragon Boat festival, on the roof for the magpies. Magpies will
carry these ropes to build the heavenly bridge.
In urban China, many young people don't celebrate
with this traditional form of activity any more. Instead, they have taken the
customs from western society and this charming festival has been
commercialised. Perhaps it's just as well, because the modern young woman in
China works a long and arduous schedule. Many florists, confectioners, bar
owners and gift shops enjoy the increased spending power of young people in
China, particularly during Double Seventh Festival
QiXi make me interesting. Why??
Nowadays, to celebrate love becomes the
fashionable and only meaningful activity on Qixi Day, and the Day got the name
of "Chinese Valentine's Day" with westernization. However, it was
actually called "Young Girls' Day", or "Festival to Plead for
Skills".
There are special food for this special day. The
first most important one was Qiao Guo (clever cake), which was used for
sacrifice. It is still popular in present days. Here is the recipe: use white
sugar and oil to make sugar syrup, then add flour and sesame seeds to mix up,
then flatten out. Make variable patterns with fruit jam or bean paste in it,
then fry it to golden yellow.
Another important food was "flower
melon", i.e. clever young girls created different patterns on melons, i.e.
melon carvings.
Positive
- It increase the merchant’s income
- It’s a good moment to gather with their family
- It’s time to show the traditional food
Negative
- Increasing the free sex’s presentation
- Now, this culture was disappear (has leaved by the youth)
Reference
- Chinese Valentine's Day_Night of Sevens Festival (七夕节) - YouTube.mp4
- 宜蘭七夕情人節2010 Chinese Valentine's Day in Ilan (QiXi Festival) - YouTube.flv
Thank You
