Qixi Festival

In China, on the night of the seventh day of the seventh lunar month, the weather is warm and the air is filled with the fragrance of plants and trees. This is commonly known as the Qixi Festival, also known as the "Qiqiao Festival" or "Daughter's Day." It is the most romantic of China's traditional festivals and a day that girls once cherished the most.

On clear summer and autumn nights, the sky is ablaze with stars, a vast white Milky Way stretching from north to south. On each bank of the Milky Way, a twinkling star stands, facing each other across the river. These are Altair and Vega.

It is a folk custom to sit and watch the Altair and Vega stars on Qixi Festival. According to legend, on this night each year, the Weaver Girl and the Cowherd meet on the Magpie Bridge in heaven. The Weaver Girl is a beautiful, intelligent, and skillful fairy. On this night, mortal women pray to her for wisdom and skills, and often for a happy marriage. Therefore, the seventh day of the seventh month is also known as the Qiqiao Festival.

Legend has it that on the night of Qixi Festival, one can look up and see the Cowherd and the Weaver Girl meet at the Milky Way, or even overhear their sweet whispers beneath a fruit stand.

On this romantic evening, girls would face the bright moon, place seasonal fruits, and offer sacrifices to the heavens, praying to the goddess of heaven to grant them wisdom and dexterity, enabling them to master needlework and knitting skills, and to find a happy marriage. In the past, marriage was a lifelong event for women, determining their lifelong happiness. Therefore, countless lovers would pray to the stars on this night, in the quiet of night, for a happy marriage.


The Origin and Legend of Qixi Festival

The Qixi Festival, a festival dedicated to the pursuit of skill, originated in the Han Dynasty. Ge Hong's "Miscellaneous Notes of Western Capital" in the Eastern Jin Dynasty records that "Han women would often thread seven-hole needles in the Kaijin Tower on the seventh day of the seventh month, a practice common to all." This is the earliest record of Qixi Festival in ancient literature. Later, in Tang and Song poetry, women's Qiqiao activities were frequently mentioned. Wang Jian, a Tang Dynasty poet, wrote, "The dim stars are adorned with pearly brilliance, and on the Qixi Festival, the palace maids are busy begging for skills." According to "The Remaining Stories of the Kaiyuan and Tianbao Periods," Emperor Taizong of Tang and his concubines held banquets at the Qing Palace every Qixi Festival, and the palace maids each begged for skills. This custom endured among the people, passed down from generation to generation.

During the Song and Yuan dynasties, Qiqiao was a grand celebration, with a market in the capital dedicated to selling items for Qiqiao, known as the Qiqiao Market. "Drunken Old Man's Talks," compiled by Luo Ye and Jin Yingzhi of the Song Dynasty, describes the following: "On the Qixi Festival, Qiqiao items are bought and sold in front of Pan Tower. From the first day of the seventh month, carriages and horses are congested. Three days before Qixi Festival, the traffic is completely blocked, and traffic is blocked until nightfall." The frenzy of buying items at the Qiqiao Market suggests the lively atmosphere of the Qixi Festival. Starting on the first day of the seventh lunar month, people began preparing items for the Qiqiao Festival. The Qiqiao Market was bustling with people and vehicles. As Qixi Festival approached, the market was a vast sea of ​​people, making it difficult for vehicles to pass through. The atmosphere was as lively as that of the grandest festival, the Spring Festival, demonstrating that the Qiqiao Festival was one of the most beloved festivals in ancient China.


The Legend of the Cowherd and the Weaver Girl


The Qixi Festival has always been associated with the legend of the Cowherd and the Weaver Girl. This is a beautiful love story that has been passed down through the ages and has become one of the four great Chinese folk love legends.



Legend has it that long ago, in Niujia Village, west of Nanyang City, there lived a clever and honest young man. His parents died young, and he had to live with his brother and sister-in-law. His sister-in-law, Ma, was cruel and often abused him, forcing him to do relentless work. One autumn, Ma forced him to herd cattle, giving him nine cows but telling him to wait until he had ten before returning home. The Cowherd had no choice but to drive the cattle out of the village.

The cowherd drove his cattle alone into the mountains. On a hill covered with dense grass and forest, he sat beneath a tree, feeling heartbroken, wondering when he would be able to return home with his ten cows. Then, an old man with white hair and beard appeared before him and asked him why he was sad. Upon learning of his plight, he smiled and said, "Don't be sad. There's an old, sick cow in Funiu Mountain. Take good care of it. When it recovers, you can drive it home."

The cowherd traveled a long way over mountains and hills before finally finding the sick cow. He saw how ill the cow was. He went to fetch bundles of grass for the old cow and fed it for three days. When the cow was full, it raised its head and told him that it was originally a gray ox immortal in heaven, but had been banished from heaven for violating the laws of heaven. It had broken its leg and was unable to move. Its injury required a month of washing with dew from hundreds of flowers to heal. Undeterred by the hard work, the cowherd meticulously cared for the old cow for a month, gathering flowers and collecting dew to heal its wound during the day and snuggling up to it at night to sleep. When the old cow recovered, the cowherd happily drove his ten cows home.

After returning home, his sister-in-law continued to treat him harshly and attempted to harm him several times. , each time the old cow managed to rescue him. Finally, the sister-in-law, infuriated, drove the cowherd out of the house, leaving the cowherd to keep the old cow.

One day, the Weaver Girl from heaven came down to earth with the fairies to play and bathe in the river. With the help of the old cow, the cowherd met the Weaver Girl, and they fell in love. Later, the Weaver Girl secretly descended to earth and became the cowherd's wife. She also shared the silkworms she had brought from heaven with everyone and taught them how to raise them, spin silk, and weave shiny, bright silk.

After the cowherd and the Weaver Girl married, the man farmed and the woman wove, their love deep and deep. They had two children. With two children, a boy and a girl, the family lived happily. However, their good fortune didn't last long. The Emperor of Heaven soon learned of their misfortune, and the Queen Mother descended to Earth to forcibly take the Weaver Girl back to heaven, separating the loving couple.

The Cowherd had no way to ascend to heaven, but an old cow told him that after its death, its hide could be made into shoes, allowing him to ascend to heaven. The Cowherd followed the cow's advice, donning the shoes and taking his children with them, rode a cloud and soared into the sky to chase the Weaver Girl. Just as they were about to catch up, the Queen Mother plucked a golden hairpin from her head and waved it, sending a raging wave of water crashing down. The Milky Way suddenly appeared, separating the Cowherd and the Weaver Girl, who could only weep at each other's side. Their devoted love moved magpies, and millions of them flew over to form a bridge, allowing the Cowherd and the Weaver Girl to reunite on it. The Queen Mother, helpless, allowed the two to meet on the bridge every July 7th.


Later, on the seventh day of the seventh lunar month, the day when the Cowherd and the Weaver Girl were said to meet on the bridge, the girls would gather under the moon and flowers, gazing up at the starry sky, searching for the Altair and Vega stars on opposite sides of the Milky Way, hoping to witness their annual reunion and begging the Heavenly Mother for mercy. The Qixi Festival was born, hoping that God would grant them the dexterity of the Weaver Girl and that they would find a happy and fulfilling marriage.
... Fruits and melons are used to pray for good luck. If a spider weaves a web on a fruit or melon, it signifies that the good luck has been won. The custom of eating Qiaoqiao rice to pray for good luck in places like Juancheng, Caoxian, and Pingyuan is quite interesting: seven close friends gather grain and vegetables to make dumplings, each containing a copper coin, a needle, and a red date. After the ceremony, they gather together to eat the dumplings. Legend has it that those who eat the coin will be blessed, those who eat the needle will be skillful, and those who eat the date will marry early.

In some places, the Qiqiao Festival activities are competitive, similar to the ancient custom of competing for skill. Modern customs like threading a needle and steaming a Qiaobei are also popular. Some areas also have the custom of making Qiaoya soup. Grains are typically soaked in water on the first day of the seventh lunar month to allow them to sprout. On Qixi Festival, the sprouts are cut and made into soup. Children in these areas place great importance on eating Qiaoya. Decorations made from dough figurines, paper cuttings, and embroidery are an evolution of the custom of competing for cleverness. Shepherds pick wild flowers on Qixi Festival and hang them on oxen's horns, a tradition known as "celebrating the ox's birthday" (according to legend, Qixi Festival is the ox's birthday).

In Zhucheng, Teng County, and Zou County, the rain that falls on Qixi Festival is called "love rain" or "love tears," as it is caused by the reunion of the Cowherd and the Weaver Girl. According to legend, magpies are extremely rare on this day in Jiaodong and southwestern Shandong, having all gone to build the Magpie Bridge in the sky.

Similar customs of begging for skill still exist across Zhejiang today. In places like Hangzhou, Ningbo, and Wenzhou, people make small objects out of flour and fry them in oil, calling them "Qiaoguo." At night, they display Qiaoguo, lotus pods, white lotus roots, and red water chestnuts in courtyards. Girls thread needles facing the moon, praying for the Weaver Girl to grant them skills. They also catch a spider and place it in a box. If the box has spun a web the next day, it's considered "getting skill."

In rural Shaoxing, many young girls will secretly go out on this night. Hiding under a lush pumpkin shed, if one could overhear the whispers of the Cowherd and the Weaver Girl in the dead of night, the young woman waiting to be married would be blessed with a thousand-year-long, everlasting love.

To express the people's wish for the Cowherd and the Weaver Girl to live a happy and harmonious family life, in Jinhua, Zhejiang, every household kills a chicken on July 7th. This means that if no rooster crows on the night of their reunion, they will remain together forever.

In western Guangxi, legend has it that on the morning of July 7th, fairies descend to earth to bathe, and drinking their bath water can ward off evil, cure illness, and prolong life. This water is called "Double Seven Water." When the cockcrows on this day, people rush to the river to fetch water, then collect it in new jars for later use.

Guangzhou's Qiqiao Festival is unique. Before the festival arrives, young women prepare various ingenious little toys using colored paper, straw, and string. They also place grain seeds and mung beans in small boxes and soak them in water to make them germinate. When the sprouts grow to more than two inches long, they are used to worship the gods, known as "worshiping the immortal grain" and "worshiping the gods' vegetables." From the evening of the sixth to the evening of the seventh day, for two consecutive nights, the women wear new clothes and put on their clothes. After everything is arranged, the new jewelry is prepared, and incense and candles are lit. Kneeling down to the starry sky, this is called "welcoming the immortals." This is repeated seven times from the third to the fifth watch.

After this, the girls hold colored thread and thread it through needle holes, facing the light of a lantern. Those who can thread seven needle holes in one go are called "skillful" and are known as "skillful hands." Those who can't thread seven needle holes in one go are called "skillful." After Qixi Festival, the girls give each other small crafts and toys they made as a token of friendship.

In Fujian, during Qixi Festival, the Weaver Girl is invited to admire and taste fruits and vegetables, hoping for her blessing for a good harvest in the coming year. Offerings include tea and wine. , fresh fruits, five seeds (longan, red dates, hazelnuts, peanuts, melon seeds), flowers, pollen for women's makeup, and an incense burner. Generally, after fasting and bathing, everyone takes turns to burn incense and worship in front of the altar, praying silently for their wishes. Women not only beg for skill, but also beg for children, longevity, beauty, and love. Afterwards, everyone eats fruits, drinks tea and chats while playing begging games. There are two types of begging games: one is "divination", which is to use divination tools to ask yourself whether you are clever or stupid; the other is a competition of skill, that is, whoever threads the needle faster is the winner, and the slow one is called "lose skill", and the "lose skill" is the winner. The "clever" one would give a small gift prepared in advance to the "skillful" one.

Some regions also organized "Seven Sisters" gatherings. These "Seven Sisters" from various regions gathered at clan associations and set up a variety of colorful incense tables to offer sacrifices to the Cowherd and the Weaver Girl. These "incense tables" were made of paper and filled with a dazzling array of flowers, fruit, rouge, miniature paper flowered clothes, shoes, daily necessities, and embroidery. The "Seven Sisters" from different regions would put a lot of effort into their incense tables, competing to see who had the most exquisite craftsmanship. Today, these activities have been forgotten, and only a few clan associations still hold them. On this festival, an incense table is set up to worship the Cowherd and the Weaver Girl. The table is usually prepared by the seventh day of the seventh lunar month, and prayers for wisdom and dexterity begin in the evening.

Among the foods served during the Qixi Festival, the most famous is the "Qiao Guo" (a type of fruit) known as "Qiao Guo" (a type of fruit for begging for skills). There are many varieties of these, the main ingredients being oil, flour, sugar, and honey. The "Dongjing Menghualu" (Dongjing Menghualu) calls them "Xiao Yan'er" (a type of fruit food), and designs include "Na Xiang" (a type of fragrant fruit), "Fang Sheng" (a type of square win), and other designs. During the Song Dynasty, Qixi "Qiao Guo" (a type of fruit) was already sold in the streets. To make it, melt sugar in a pot until it becomes syrup, then add flour and sesame seeds, mix well, and spread on the surface. Roll the dough thinly on a table, let it cool, then cut it into rectangular pieces with a knife. Finally, fold it into spindle-shaped dough pieces and deep-fry them until golden brown. Dexterous women will also shape various designs related to the Qixi Festival legend.


Furthermore, the fruits used for begging for skills also have various variations: some are carved into exotic flowers and birds, or have relief designs on the rind; these fruits are called "flower melons."

To this day, Qixi Festival remains a romantic traditional festival. While many customs and activities have weakened or disappeared, the legend of the Cowherd and the Weaver Girl, a symbol of loyal love, remains popular.