What are the customs and habits on the seventh day of the seventh lunar month?

The seventh day of the seventh month of the lunar calendar is Valentine's Day for Chinese people. Some people also call it Qixi Festival, Qixi Festival or Girls' Day. This day is the most important day for girls' families. The reason why the seventh day of the seventh lunar month is called Qi Qiao is because it is said that on this day the Cowherd and the Weaver Girl will meet in the Milky Way. The girls’ families will worship the sky with melons and fruits at night and beg for skill from the goddess.

In addition to begging for the skills of knitting girls, they also begged for a good match in marriage. Therefore, countless loving men and women in the world will pray to the stars on this night, in the dead of night, for a happy marriage.

The bright star located in the west of the Milky Way is Vega. Vega is Alpha Lyra, the brightest star in the constellation Lyra. In ancient Greece, Lyra was regarded as a lyre, the golden harp given to Orpheus by the sun god Apollo that fascinated countless people. Next to Vega, there is a small diamond shape composed of four dark stars. Legend has it that this is the shuttle used by the Weaver Girl to weave cloth.

Across the river from Vega is Alpha Aquila, the star Altair. The ancient Greeks imagined this constellation as a goshawk soaring in the night sky, and Altair was the heart of the flying eagle.

There is a small star on each side of Altair in Aquila, both pointing to Vega. Legend has it that these two stars are two children carried by the Altair on a pole, chasing after Vega

The origin of the Chinese Valentine's Day

A long time ago, there was an orphan who lived with his brother and sister-in-law. He was smart and diligent, but his sister-in-law still disliked him and drove him up the mountain to herd cattle before dawn. Everyone called him Niu. Lang. A few years later, the brother's sister-in-law and the Cowherd separated, and Langxin's sister-in-law only gave him a shabby hut and an old cow. From then on, the Cowherd herded the cows and chopped firewood during the day, and slept in the shabby hut with the old cow at night. One day, the Cowherd drove his cattle into a strange forest, where there were beautiful mountains and green waters, and the birds were singing and the flowers were fragrant. The Cowherd saw nine fairies riding auspicious clouds and landing on the grass of the river. Then they took off their colorful clothes and jumped into the crystal clear river water. The Cowherd stared at the youngest and most beautiful fairy in trance. The old cow suddenly spoke: "She is the Weaver Girl in the sky. As long as you take away the colorful clothes, she will be your wife." The Cowherd quietly walked along the tree and quietly took away the colorful clothes of the Weaver Girl. When it was almost noon, other fairies put on colorful clothes and drove away on auspicious clouds. Only the Weaver Girl, who could not find the colorful clothes, remained. At this time, the Cowherd came out from behind the tree and asked the Weaver Girl to be his wife. When the Weaver Girl saw that the Cowherd was honest, hard-working and strong, she nodded shyly. After the Cowherd and the Weaver Girl got married, the men farmed and the women weaved, respecting and loving each other. Two years later, the Weaver Girl gave birth to a boy and a girl. However, the Emperor of Heaven was furious when he heard that the Weaver Girl was marrying a human being. On the seventh day of the seventh lunar month, the Queen Mother was ordered to lead the heavenly soldiers and generals to capture the Weaver Girl. The grief-stricken Cowherd, with the help of the old cow, carried his children in a radish basket and chased them up to the sky. Seeing that he had caught up, the Queen Mother pulled out the golden hairpin and stroked it, and a turbulent Milky Way immediately appeared under the Cowherd's feet. The Weaver Girl with a heartbroken heart and the Cowherd carrying his children on his shoulders, one in the east of the river and the other in the west of the river, looked at each other and wept from a distance. The cry moved the magpies. In an instant, countless magpies flew to the Tianhe River and built a magpie bridge. The Cowherd and the Weaver Girl could finally meet on the magpie bridge. The Queen Mother had no choice but to allow the Cowherd and the Weaver Girl to meet on the bridge once every year on the seventh day of July.

Of course, this is just a legend. The ritual of begging for cleverness originated from the original belief of the ancient Weaver Girl and Mulberry God. This belief combined with the saying that the Cowherd and the Weaver Girl meet every year on July 7 has become our current folk belief of Qixi Qiqiao.

In our country, the seventh day of the seventh lunar month is commonly known as the "Qixi Festival", and some also call it the "Qiqiao Festival" or "Daughter's Day". This is the most romantic festival among traditional Chinese festivals. It was also the day that girls valued most in the past. In fact, not only the Han people, but also the Zhuang, Manchu and Korean people also have the custom of "Qixi Festival". However, as the Western "Valentine's Day" spread to China, the "Qixi Festival" gradually became known as China's "Valentine's Day". However, her influence among young people is far less than that of the Western "Valentine's Day" which falls on February 14th of the Gregorian calendar every year. Not only that, but a festival with such a long history, profound cultural connotation, and such beautiful legends is getting less and less valued by society and is becoming more and more neglected. Is the world changing too fast? Or is the festival not modern enough to keep up with the times? Will the Cowherd and the Weaver Girl really be abandoned by the Chinese? The neglect of the "Qixi Festival" forces us to focus on the rise and fall of traditional Chinese festivals. The seventh day of the seventh lunar month - Qixi Festival

The story of the Cowherd and the Weaver Girl, one of the folk love legends.

The Chinese Valentine's Day has always been connected with the legend of the Cowherd and the Weaver Girl. This is a very beautiful love story that has been passed down through the ages and is one of the four major folk love legends in my country.

According to legend, a long time ago, there was a smart and loyal young man in Niujiazhuang in the west of Nanyang City. His parents died early, so he had to live with his brother and sister-in-law. His sister-in-law, Ma, was vicious and often abused him and forced him to He did a lot of work. One autumn, his sister-in-law forced him to herd cattle and gave him nine cows, but asked him to wait until he had ten cows before he could go home. The Cowherd had no choice but to drive the cows out of the village.

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One day, the Weaver Girl from the sky and the fairies came down to earth to play and bathe in the river. With the help of the old cow, the Cowherd met the Weaver Girl, and the two fell in love with each other. Later, the Weaver Girl secretly descended to the human world and became the Cowherd's wife. The Weaver Girl also distributed the silkworms brought from the sky to everyone, and taught everyone how to raise silkworms, draw silk, and weave shiny silk and satin.

After the Cowherd and the Weaver Girl got married, the man farmed and the woman weaved, and they were deeply in love. They gave birth to two children, a boy and a girl, and the family lived happily. But the good times did not last long, and the Emperor of Heaven soon knew about this. The Queen Mother came down to earth in person and forcibly took Weaver Girl back to heaven, and the loving couple was separated.

The Cowherd had no way to go to heaven, so the old cow told the Cowherd that after its death, its skin could be used to make shoes, and he could go to heaven wearing them. The Cowherd did as Lao Niu told him, put on his cowhide shoes, took his children with him, and went up to the sky to chase the Weaver Girl. When he saw that he was about to catch up, the Queen Mother took off the golden hairpin from her head and waved it, and a turbulent wave came out. The Tianhe appeared, and the Cowherd and the Weaver Girl were separated on both sides, and they could only cry to each other. Their loyal love moved the magpies. Thousands of magpies flew to build a magpie bridge for the Cowherd and the Weaver Girl to walk on the magpie bridge to meet each other. The Queen Mother had no choice but to allow the two to meet on the magpie bridge every July 7th.

Later, every seventh day of the seventh lunar month, when it is said that the Cowherd and the Weaver Girl met on the Magpie Bridge, the girls would come to the flowers in front of the moon and look up at the stars, looking for Altair and Vega on both sides of the Milky Way, hoping to see them. They meet once a year, begging God to make them as ingenious as the Weaver Girl, and praying that they can have a happy marriage as they wish, thus forming the Chinese Valentine's Day.