Chinese Valentine's Day: Qixi 七夕
Date of publication :2020-08-25 13:45

Today is the Chinese Valentine's Day! It falls on the 7th night of the 7th Chinese lunar month, thus also known as Double Seventh Festival (Qixi Festival). In 2020,  it's on August 25. 

In a middle summer evening, with a cup of tea and a plat of mixed nuts, we listen to our elderly telling an ancient romantic legend story while gazing stars in the sky:   Qixi, one of Chinese traditional festivals with over 2600 years history, is about the love of a weaver fairy (the star Vega, 织女) and an ox herd (Niu Lang 牛郎) . The weaver fairy fell in love with the honest hardworking ox herd, and married him without permission from her mother Goddess.  The chief of all fairies seperated the couple with a river of stars ( the Milky Way)  beucause the two lovers were from different class of different world.  Eventually, they were allowed to meet once a year through a bridge formed by a flock of magpies on the seventh night of the seventh month of lunar calendar。 




Qixi festival is also celebrated in other countries like Japan, Korea, in various forms. Many literature works were dedicated to this great folk tale.

Here please appreciate one of the most famous poems from 11th century: 




💡 We already talked about Double 3rd Festival ( celebrating the arrival of Spring), Double 5th Festival ( commemorating the ancient poet Quyuan), now Double 7th Festival. Do you know any other Double number festivals in China? How about in your culture? 


Tags: learn chinese through culture eventdouble 7th festivalChinese valentine's festivalqixi
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