The Origin and Customs of Qixi Festival

Chinese Valentine's Day, also known as Qiqiao Festival, Qijie Festival, Daughter's Day, Qiqiao Festival, Qiqiang Festival, Qixi Festival, Cow and Bull's Day and Qiaoxi Festival, is a traditional folk festival in China. The following is an introduction to the origin and customs of Qixi, which I collected, hoping to help you.

First, the origin of Chinese Valentine's Day

The annual "Chinese Valentine's Day", also known as Qiqiao Festival and Qiqiao Festival, originated in the Han Dynasty in China. It is a traditional festival in the Chinese areas of the world and some East Asian countries influenced by Han culture. Every year on the night of the seventh or sixth day of the seventh lunar month, women beg for wisdom from Vega in the courtyard, so it is called "Qiqiao". It originated from ancient people's worship of nature and women's needlework, and was later endowed with the legend of cowherd and weaver girl, making it a festival symbolizing love. On May 2th, 26, "Chinese Valentine's Day" was listed in the first batch of national intangible cultural heritage by the People's Republic of China and the State Council.

Every year on the seventh day of the seventh lunar month, the vast Han people in China will celebrate the traditional festival Chinese Valentine's Day. Because the main participants in this day's activities are girls, and the content of the festival activities is mainly begging for skills, people call this day "Begging for Skills Festival" or "Girls' Day" and "Daughter's Day". Chinese Valentine's Day is one of the most romantic traditional festivals in China, and it is also the most important day for girls in the past. On this night, women put on needles to pray for Fu Lushou's activities, and on the seventh day, the ceremony was pious and grand, and flowers and fruits were displayed. All kinds of furniture and utensils were exquisite and small, which made people love them. There is no doubt that Chinese Valentine's Day is actually just a festival for women.

Tanabata was originally called Begging for Cleverness Festival, which originated in the Han Dynasty. In the Miscellanies of Xijing written by Ge Hong in the Eastern Jin Dynasty, it was recorded that "women in the Han Dynasty often put a seven-hole needle on the opening floor on July 7th, and everyone was Xi Zhi", which is the earliest record of begging for cleverness that we have seen in ancient literature. In later Tang and Song poems, women's begging for cleverness was also repeatedly mentioned. Wang Jianyou, a famous poet in the Tang Dynasty, said in a poem that "the stars are shining with pearls, and the palace moths on Qixi are busy with begging for cleverness". Li Shangyin, another famous poet in the Tang Dynasty, also said: "Clearing the leak gradually moved across the river for a long time, but weiyun didn't take it too late. I don't mean to reward the black magpie, but I beg the spider for clever silk. " For Tanabata, it is also recorded in The Legacy of Kaiyuan Tianbao: Every Tanabata, Emperor Taizong and his concubines had a banquet in the Qing Palace, and the ladies-in-waiting begged for their own ingenuity. This custom has also been enduring among the people and continued from generation to generation.

During the Song and Yuan Dynasties, Qiaqiao was quite grand, and there was also a market in Beijing that monopolized Qiaqiao articles, which was called Qiaqiao City by the world. Song Luoye and Jin Ying's series "Talk about Drunken Weng" said: "On Tanabata, Panlou bought and sold gimmicks. From July 1 ST, the horses and chariots swallowed, and three days before the Qixi Festival, the horses and chariots were not allowed to pass, and they stopped again and again, and they did not get it until the night. " Here, we can infer the lively scene of Qiqiao Festival at that time from the grand occasion of buying Qiqiao objects from Qiqiao City. People began to set up Qiqiao goods on the first day of July, and the Qiqiao market was full of traffic and people. By the time of Tanabata, Qiqiao market had become an ocean of people, and it was difficult for horses and chariots to travel, which seemed to be no less than the biggest festival "Spring Festival". It is not difficult to see that "Chinese Valentine's Day" is one of the favorite festivals of ancient women.

Tracing back to the source, Tanabata is a phenomenon of digital worship. In ancient times, people listed the seventh day of the first month, the third day of March, the fifth day of May, the seventh day of July, and the ninth day of September as auspicious days, plus the multiples of February 2 and June 6. "Seven" is the number of beads in each column of the abacus, which is romantic and rigorous, giving people a mysterious aesthetic feeling. "Seven" and "wife" are homonyms, so Tanabata has largely become a festival related to women.

Second, Chinese Valentine's Day's customs

For thousands of years, people have passed down many folk customs through the Chinese Valentine's Day, among which there are seven main customs:

(1) Needle-piercing to beg for cleverness

This is the earliest way of begging for cleverness beyond Chinese Valentine's Day, which began in Han Dynasty and passed down to later generations. "Miscellaneous Notes on Xijing" said: "Women in the Han Dynasty often wear seven-hole needles in the Kaijin Building on July 7, and people have Xi Zhi." The Chronicle of Jingchu Years Old by Liang Zongmou of the Southern Dynasties said: "On July 7th, it was the women of the evening family who tied the colored floor through seven holes, or used gold and silver as needles." "Geographical Records" said: "Emperor Wu of the Qi Dynasty began to view the city on the first floor. On July 7th, imperial court officials made many attempts to pierce the needle. The world calls it a needle-piercing building. " Wang Renyu's "The Legacy of Kaiyuan Tianbao" in the Five Dynasties said: "On Tanabata, the palace was built with brocade, which was hundreds of feet high, and it could beat dozens of people in the world. Chen roasted melons and fruits with wine, set up seats, worshipped cows and women with two stars, and his concubines each wore nine-hole needles and five-color lines to the moon. It was a good time to pass. Move the song of Qing merchants, and have fun. The home of the natives is effective. " Yuan Tao Zongyi's "yuanshi county Yeting Lu" said: "Nine tables are cited, and the Qixi Festival is a place for seeking cleverness. In the evening, the ladies-in-waiting go on stage to thread Kyubi no Youko needles with colorful silk. Those who finish first are clever, and those who finish late are called losers. Each contributes to the gift. "

(2) Spider-loving should be clever

This is also an earlier way of begging for cleverness, and its popularity is a little later than that of needle-piercing, which probably started in the Northern and Southern Dynasties. In the Southern Dynasties, Liang Zonggu said, "A Record of the Age of Jingchu"; "It's evening, Chen melon and fruit in court to beg for cleverness. If you have a happy subnet on the melon, you think it corresponds. " Wang Renyu's "The Legacy of Kaiyuan Tianbao" in the Five Dynasties said: "On July 7th, we all caught spiders in small boxes until dawn; Think of cobwebs as sparse and dense. A secret person has many clever words, but a rare person has few clever words. Folk works, too. "The Dream of China in Tokyo, written by Meng Yuan-yuan in the Song Dynasty, said that on the seventh day of July," put a spider in the zygote, and look at it the next day. If the net is round, it is just a coincidence. " Song Zhoumi's "When I was a year old" said; "How long does it take to store small spiders in the house and wait for the density of the web?" Tomita Rucheng's "Pleasure of Xi Chao" said that on Tanabata, "It is very clever to hold spiders in a small box and watch the density of their web the next morning." From this, it can be seen that the methods of testing ingenuity are different in the past dynasties. The existence of the visual network in the Northern and Southern Dynasties, the thinness of the visual network in the Tang Dynasty, the roundness of the visual network in the Song Dynasty, and later generations follow the customs of the Tang Dynasty.

(3) Putting needles to test cleverness

This is the evolution of the custom of asking for cleverness through needles on Qixi Festival, which is different from that through needles. It is a popular Chinese Valentine's Day custom in Ming and Qing Dynasties. Liu Dong and Yu Yizheng's "A Brief Introduction to the Scenery of the Imperial Capital" in the Ming Dynasty said: "On the afternoon of July 7th, we lost a clever needle. When women are exposed to the water, the water film looks unfamiliar, while the embroidery needle floats and looks at the shadow of the underwater needle. Those who have clouds, flowers, birds and animals, shoes and scissors, and eggplant shadows are called clever begging; Its shadow is as thick as a hammer, as thin as silk, and as straight as axis wax, which is a mistake. " Zhili Records also said that in Liangxiang County (now southwest of Beijing), "on July 7th, women begged for cleverness, threw needles into the water, borrowed the shadow of the sun to check their work, and still begged for cleverness at night". Yu Minzhong's Textual Research on the Old News of the Sun quoted Miscellaneous Notes of Wan Department as saying: "On July 7th, women in Yan Dou violently rained with bowls of water, each throwing a small needle to the surface of the water, and Xu looked at the shadow of the sun under the water. Or scattered like a flower, moving like a cloud, as thin as a line, as thick as a cone, because of the ingenuity of divining women. "

(4) Lan Ye Dou Qiao

originated from the game in the court of the Han Dynasty. Jia Peilan, the maid-in-waiting of Mrs. Qi, the beloved princess of the Emperor Gaozu, often talked to people about the Qixi Festival in the Han Palace after leaving the palace to marry Duan Ru, a man who helped the wind. She said: "On the 7th of July every year, the Han Palace is first played in Chi Pan, the ancient philosophers, and then it is tied with five colors, which is called" mutual affection ". Later, the palace ladies went to the closed-top building together, and everyone learned to wear seven clever needles to beg for cleverness. And there is a maid-in-waiting named Xu Jieyu, who can carve the raw lotus root into various exotic flowers and birds and present them to the emperor. The emperor will put these gadgets on the corner of the table in the palace at night for the maids to look for in the dark. This game is called' Dou Qiao'. "

(5) To have children

In the old folk custom, a few days before the Chinese Valentine's Day, a layer of soil was first spread on a small wooden board, and the seeds of millet were sown to make it grow green seedlings, and then some small huts and flowers were placed on it to make it look like a small village of Tiansheren, called a "shell board", or mung beans, adzuki beans and wheat were soaked in a magnetic bowl. All parts of the south are also called "bubble cleverness", and the sprouted bean sprouts are called clever buds, and even the needles are replaced by clever buds, which are thrown on the water to beg for cleverness. Wax is also used to mold various images, such as the characters in the stories of Cowherd and Weaver Girl, or the shapes of vultures, mandarin ducks and other animals, and float on the water, which is called "floating on the water". There are also baby dolls made of wax, which women can buy home and float in the water and soil, so as to be auspicious for their children, which is called "metaplasia".

(6) drying books and clothes

According to records, Sima Yi was quite suspicious of Cao Cao because of his high position and power. In view of the political darkness at that time, in order to protect himself, he pretended to be crazy and hid at home. Wei Wudi is still not at ease, so he sent a close friend to make history secretly explore the truth. It was July 7th, and Sima Yi, who pretended to be crazy, was also drying books at home. Make history back to leave Wei Wudi, Wei Wudi immediately ordered to sima yi back to the office, otherwise can be taken into custody. Sima yi only obediently obeyed and returned to the DPRK. Another kind of people, in troubled times, express their depression by being a degenerate. They despise etiquette and oppose customs.

Volume 25 of Liu Yiqing's Shi Shuo Xin Yu says that on July 7th, everyone printed books, and only Hao Long ran to lie in the sun. When people asked him why, he replied, "I printed books". On the one hand, this is to despise the custom of printing books, on the other hand, it is also to boast about the talent in one's belly. Drying your belly is also drying books. In the Wei and Jin Dynasties, the custom of drying clothes in the Han Dynasty created opportunities for rich families to boast about their wealth. Ruan Xian, one of the "Seven Sages of Bamboo Forest", looked down upon this style. On July 7, when his neighbor was drying clothes, he saw that the shelves were full of silk and satin, dazzling. Ruan Xian unhurriedly picked up a worn-out dress with a bamboo pole. Someone asked him what he was doing, and he said, "I can't avoid customs, talk to you!" From these short stories, we can see how prosperous the custom of drying books and clothes on Tanabata was.

(7) Worship the Weaver Girl

"Worship the Weaver Girl" is an important event for young girls and young women to visit Chinese Valentine's Day. Most of them make an appointment with their friends or neighbors in advance for five or six people, up to a dozen people, to jointly hold it. The ceremony was held by laying a table under the moonlight, on which tea, wine, fruit and five sons, namely longan, red dates, hazelnuts, peanuts, melon seeds and other sacrifices were placed; There are a few more flowers, tied with red paper, inserted in bottles, with a small incense burner in front of them. Then, the young women and girls who have made an appointment to attend the worship of the Weaver Girl will fast for one day, take a bath and come to the host's home on time. After burning incense before the case, everyone will sit around the table, eating peanuts and melon seeds, and meditating on their own thoughts while facing the Weaver Girl sign. If girls want to be beautiful or marry a husband, and young women want to have a baby early, they can pray silently to Vega. Play until midnight.