Why is Valentine's Day in China called Beggars' Day?

Valentine's Day in China, also known as Begging Festival, originated in the Han Dynasty. Ge Hong's Miscellanies of Xijing in the Eastern Jin Dynasty recorded that "women in the Han Dynasty often put seven-hole needles in the building on July 7, and everyone was there".

The first Begging Festival is not to commemorate the love of the Cowherd and the Weaver Girl, but to commemorate the Weaver Girl who is called "Seven Sisters" by the people. Therefore, Valentine's Day in China is first and foremost a festival for women, and the Weaver Girl is regarded as the goddess of textile and the object of ancient women's worship. On the night of the seventh day of July, ordinary women beg her for wisdom and skillful skills. Of course, they also inevitably ask for a happy marriage and a husband.

According to the "Tokyo Age Record", "Tanabata is full of family colors and clever sheds." Its grand occasion can be seen. The activity of "seeking cleverness" is actually seeking the cleverness of the Weaver Girl.

There was a custom of begging for cleverness in Han dynasty; In the Northern and Southern Dynasties, women tied colored threads and wore seven-hole needles. In the Tang Dynasty, this custom was particularly popular, in which throwing needles was used to indicate the cleverness of the needle throwing woman, that is, taking a bowl of clear water, exposing it to the sun, and then throwing a small needle on the water to see the shape of the needle shadow under the water.

In the Ming and Qing Dynasties, Tanabata evolved into the "Seven Niangs' Meeting", and seven girls invited together to wrap all kinds of flower and fruit figures and palace utensils with materials such as medulla tetrapanacis, colored paper and rice flour, and displayed them on the table of the eight immortals in front of the court for tourists to enjoy on the night of Tanabata, and then they competed together to wear needles to worship the Weaver Maid.

Tanabata is the most important festival for young women in ancient China. There are also some Qixi customs, such as needlework, love for spiders, throwing needles, printing books, worshipping the Weaver Maid, eating fruit, and Seven Sisters's birthday.