Traditional Culture Encyclopedia - Traditional festivals - The origin of the Tanabata Festival?

The origin of the Tanabata Festival?

One, the Tanabata Festival origin:

The Tanabata Begging for Handicrafts, this festival originated in the Han Dynasty, the Eastern Jin Dynasty Ge Hong's "Xijing Miscellany" has "Han color women often wear seven holes in the July 7 needle in the lapel building, the people are used to it," the record, which is the earliest record of begging for handicrafts that we have seen in the ancient literature.

Later in the Tang and Song poems, women's begging was also mentioned repeatedly, the Tang dynasty Wang Jian said in a poem, "appendant stars and buckets decorated with pearl light, the Tanabata palace e begging for coincidence busy". According to "Kaiyuan Tianbao remains": Emperor Taizong of Tang Dynasty and his consort every Tanabata night banquet in the Qing Palace, the palace ladies beg, this custom in the folklore is also enduring, and continue from generation to generation.

Song and Yuan times, Tanabata begging is quite grand, the capital also has a market specializing in the sale of begging items, the world known as begging city. Song Luo Ye, Jin Ying Zhi collection of Drunken Weng said: "Tanabata, Pan Lou before the sale of begging objects. Since July 1, car and horse anger throat, to three days before Tanabata, car and horse do not pass, phase after phase congestion, no longer come out, to the night square dispersal."

Second, about the cowherd weaving legend:

Legend in the very early days, Nanyang City, west of the Niu family home there is a smart. Loyal young man, parents died early, had to follow his brother and sister-in-law, sister-in-law Ma's vicious, often abused him, forcing him to do a lot of work, one year in the fall, sister-in-law forced him to go to the cattle, give him nine cows, but let him wait until there are ten cows can go home, Cowherd had no choice but to drive the cattle out of the village.

Niu Lang drove his cattle alone into the mountains, where the grass was deep and the forests were thick, and he sat under a tree grieving, wondering when he would be able to drive his ten cows home.

An old man with white hair appeared in front of him and asked him why he was sad. When he found out what had happened to him, he smiled and said, "Don't be sad, there is a sick old ox in the FuNiu Mountain, go and feed it well, and when the old ox gets well, you will be able to drive it home.

The cowherd crossed the mountains and traveled a long way, and finally found the sick old cow. Seeing that the old cow was very sick, he went to fetch the old cow a bundle of grass, and fed it for three days in a row. After the old cow had had enough to eat, he lifted up his head and told him: he was originally a Gray Cow Immortal in the sky, but he was relegated to the lower part of the sky for violating the rules of the sky, and he broke his leg, and he was unable to move it.

His own injury needs to be washed with the dew of a hundred flowers for a month to be well, the cowherd braved the hard work, carefully cared for the old cow for a month, during the day for the old cow to pick flowers to catch the dew to cure the injury, and at night snuggled up beside the old age to sleep, to the old cow is well, the cowherd happily drove the ten cows back to the home.

After returning home, his sister-in-law was still not kind to him, and tried to harm him several times, but the old ox managed to save him, and his sister-in-law finally drove Cowherd out of the house, and Cowherd only wanted the old ox to follow him.

One day, the heavenly Weaving Maiden and all the nymphs came down to play together, bathing in the river, the cowherd in the old cow's help to recognize the Weaving Maiden, the two of them mutual love, and then the Weaving Maiden secretly came down to earth, and became the wife of the cowherd. The Weaving Maiden also distributed the heavenly silkworms brought from heaven, and taught everyone to raise silkworms, draw silk, and weave light and bright silk.

The Cowherd and the Weaving Maiden got married, and the man ploughed and the woman wove, with great affection, and they had a boy and a girl and two children, and the family lived happily ever after. But the good times didn't last long, and this soon became known to the Heavenly Emperor. The Queen Mother herself came down to earth and forced the Weaving Maiden to bring her back to heaven, and the loving couple was torn apart.

There was no way for Cowherd to get to heaven, but the old cow told Cowherd that after he died, he could make shoes from his skin and wear them to heaven. The cowherd did according to the old cow's words, put on the shoes made of the cow's skin, and pulled his own children, and together they went up to the sky in the clouds to chase after the Weaving Maiden.

Seeing that we are about to catch up, I did not know that the Queen Mother pulled down the head of the golden hairpin a wave, a choppy heavenly river appeared, the Cowherd and the Weaving Maiden were separated on both sides of the river, can only be relative to the weeping and tears.

Their faithful love touched the magpies, millions of magpies flew, built a magpie bridge, so that the Cowherd and the Weaving Maiden up to the magpie bridge to meet, the Queen Mother had no choice but to allow the two in the seventh day of the seventh month of every year in the magpie bridge to meet.

Later, every lunar July 7, according to legend, the day of the Cowherd and the Weaving Maiden magpie bridge, the girls will come to the flowers in front of the moon, look up at the stars, looking for the Milky Way on both sides of the Cowherd and the Weaving Maiden star, hoping to see them meet once a year, begging God to let themselves be like the Weaving Maiden as dexterous, and praying for their own can be as good as the heart of the marriage, which has formed the Tanabata Festival.

Three, about the Tanabata Festival poems:

Two love if it is a long time, and not in the morning and evening. Qin Guan, "Magpie Bridge Immortal - Fiber Clouds Playing with Coquettishness"

This evening on the seventh day of the seventh lunar month to see the blue sky, pulling the ox and weaving the maiden to cross the river bridge. Lin Jie's "Begging for Coquettishness"

Once we meet in the golden wind and jade dew, it is better than countless things on earth. Qin Guan, "The Magpie Bridge Immortal - The Fiddlesticks of the Clouds"

The night is as cool as water on the heavenly steps, and I am lying down to watch the Altair and the Weaving Maiden stars. Du Mu's "Autumn Evening"

The star of Altair is a long way away, and the star of the river is bright. Unknown "A Long Way to the Altair Star"

Why did the two stars meet this night, leaving me a hook of the moon in front of the court? Qin Guan's "The Magpie Bridge Immortal" (鹊桥仙-纤云弄巧)

人间梦隔西风,算天上、年华一瞬。 Wu Wenying's <

Every family begs for coincidences and looks at the moon in autumn, and wears out tens of thousands of red threads. Lin Jie's "Begging for a Coquette"

I hate that we are separated from each other so much, and that we are separated from each other so much, and that we are separated from each other so much. Lu Zhi's "Drunkenness in the East Wind - Tanabata"

The six armies were stationed together on this day, and they laughed at Altair at the time of the Tanabata. Li Shangyin's "Mawei - The Second Part"

The weaving maiden and the ox were sent to the setting sun, and the magpie bridge was long when I looked at it. I am not afraid of the autumn wind on the dawn road. Wang Jian's "Songs for the Seventh Night of the Dragon"

I am afraid that the immortal family is good at parting with each other, so I teach them to make a long journey for a good time. Li Shangyin's "The 7th Night of the Xinwei Year"

The night of the two stars, the plowing and weaving, should be envied by the fairies.


Expanded Information:

Seventh Night of the Dragon (七夕节), the seventh day of the seventh month of the lunar calendar, is an annual festival that is celebrated on the seventh day of the seventh month. The seventh day of the seventh month of the lunar calendar every year, also known as the Beggar's Tree Festival, the Festival of Seven Coincidences, the Double Seven, the Day of Fragrance, the Week, the Night of the Orchid, the Daughter's Day or the Seven Sisters, and so on. The earliest "Tanabata" originated from people's worship of natural phenomena, as early as in ancient times, the ancients on the cowherd and the weaving of the celestial phenomenon of knowledge.

The Tanabata Festival is the earliest love festival in the world. It is a festival based on the folklore of the Cowherd and the Weaving Maiden, with love as the theme and women as the main characters.

On May 20, 2006, the Tanabata Festival was included in the first batch of national intangible cultural heritage list by the State Council of the People's Republic of China*** and the State Council of the People's Republic of China ?

References:

Tanabata Festival - Baidu Encyclopedia