How did the traditional Chinese festival "Tanabata" come about? What myths and legends are associated with it?

Tanabata? The earliest source is the worship of nature, very early, because of the development of textile technology and people's understanding of the stars, people early named the Vega star, and more worship of the Vega star, the Tanabata this day to locate? Seven Sisters Birthday? , in this day to worship the seven sisters of the activities, this day is also called Tanabata, in this day to pray for blessings and wishes, pray for skillful art, see the Altair and Vega star, and then pray for marriage. This custom was only popular in some areas at first. In the Eastern Jin Dynasty, Ge Hong's "Miscellaneous Records of the Western Capital" recorded that? Han color women often to the seventh day of the seventh month to wear seven-hole needle in the Kai Lian Lou, people are practicing? This is the earliest record we have seen of the Beggar's Nest. After the Tang and Song dynasties, the Beggar's Nest is more popular. This is the origin of Tanabata.

Then in the Han Dynasty there was the story of the Cowherd and the Weaving Maiden, the Weaving Maiden is a fairy in the sky, very good at weaving, but because of the dullness of life in heaven, very much want to go down to the earth to see. Cowherd is a child of a poor family, just a cowherd boy, but raised the cow is very magical, in the weaving maiden secretly down to the earth, the cow let the cowherd to find the weaving maiden, and finally the two fell in love with each other, got married together, and lived a happy life. However, when the Emperor of Heaven found out about it, he was very angry and made them separate from each other, and they could only meet each other once on the seventh day of the seventh month of the lunar calendar. At this time of the year, magpies would fly up to the sky and build a magpie bridge for the two to meet.

Then the Beggar's Nest was blended with the myth of the Cowherd and the Weaving Maiden, which was already a festival of celebration, and the myth added a mysterious color to it. People on this day is to pray for marriage, mutual expression of love and affection. By now, Tanabata is also considered the Chinese Valentine's Day, where couples give gifts, go out together, or some just choose to confess their love on this day in the hope that their love will be accepted. It is very interesting. Now people are also more and more important to this day, before all the western Valentine's Day, but over the years, Tanabata is more popular.