{"id":15184,"date":"2020-08-25T17:59:55","date_gmt":"2020-08-25T21:59:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/chinese\/?p=15184"},"modified":"2020-08-25T17:59:55","modified_gmt":"2020-08-25T21:59:55","slug":"qixi-festival-chinas-romantic-holiday","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/chinese\/qixi-festival-chinas-romantic-holiday\/","title":{"rendered":"Qixi Festival: China’s Romantic Holiday"},"content":{"rendered":"

Today marks the most romantic holiday on the Chinese calendar. In China, the seventh day of the seventh month on the lunar calendar is known as the Qixi Festival <\/strong>(\u4e03\u5915\u8282 q\u012b x\u00ec ji\u00e9). This ancient Chinese festival goes by many names, including: the Night of Sevens, the Magpie Festival, and Qiqiao<\/strong> (\u4e5e\u5de7 q\u01d0 qi\u01ceo). Many laowai<\/em> refer to it as Chinese Valentine\u2019s Day<\/strong> (\u60c5\u4eba\u8282 q\u00edng r\u00e9n ji\u00e9) due to its similarities with the Western holiday. As with most holidays in China, there’s an interesting story behind the Qixi Festival.<\/p>\n

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Image by Bingo Naranjo from Pixabay<\/p><\/div>\n

History of the Qixi Festival<\/h2>\n

The romantic story of Qixi tells of a cow herder<\/strong> (\u725b\u90ce ni\u00fa l\u00e1ng) and a weaver girl<\/strong> (\u7ec7\u5973 zh\u012b n\u01da). The weaver girl was a goddess who came down from the heavens and fell in love with the mortal cow herder. They were secretly married and had two children together. When the weaver girl’s mother, the queen mother of heaven, found out about the marriage, she became upset. She came down to earth to take her daughter back up to the skies.<\/p>\n

Obviously Niu Lang was devastated that his true love was gone. Thankfully one of his cows turned out to be a former god. The cow instructed Niu Lang to use its hide to create a pair of magic leather shoes. Niu Lang did just that when the cow died. He put his children in wicker baskets on a pole and flew up to the heavens with them.<\/p>\n

It wasn’t exactly the happy reunion that Niu Lang was hoping for, however. When Zhi Nu’s mother found out what was going on, she used her hairpin to cut across the sky and form a river of stars known as the Milky Way<\/strong> (\u94f6\u6cb3 y\u00edn h\u00e9). The lovers were separated as a result and it seemed as if all hope was lost.<\/p>\n

The story doesn’t end there, though! Some magpies<\/strong> (\u9e4a qu\u00e8) heard the story of the star-crossed lovers and felt sympathy for them. As such, they banded together to form a Magpie Bridge<\/strong> (\u9e4a\u6865 qu\u00e8 qi\u00e1o). This allowed Niu Lang and Zhi Nu to meet on the bridge, and even her mean old mom was touched by this reunion. She said that every year on the 7th day of the 7th month, the lovers could meet on the bridge. And that’s where the Qixi Festival comes from!<\/p>\n

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Houhai at night.<\/p><\/div>\n

Traditions of Qixi Festival<\/h2>\n

As with many festivals in China, Qixi has a history dating back thousands of years. In ancient times, girls would offer fruits to Zhi N\u00fc to pray for dexterity in weaving in order to help them attract a husband.<\/p>\n

Different regions in China have their own unique customs for the festival. For example, in Shaoxing Village<\/strong> (\u7ecd\u5174\u6751 sh\u00e0o x\u012bng c\u016bn) near Hangzhou, girls will hide in a pumpkin patch at night. Those who can hear the whispers of Niu Lang and Zhi Nu will soon find true love. Check out this article<\/a> in Chinese to read more about this and a few other interesting customs. It’s a great reading exercise!<\/p>\n

One more modern tradition of the Qixi Festival is sending out a lantern<\/strong> (\u653e\u82b1\u706f f\u00e0ng hu\u0101 d\u0113ng). These can be small lanterns which are set out in a body of water, or the big ones that fly up to the sky. In Beijing, a great place to see this is around Houhai<\/strong> (\u540e\u6d77 h\u00f2u h\u01cei) – a manmade lake in the city center and a popular place for couples to celebrate Qixi together.<\/p>\n

Although this festival has been around for a long, long time, it tends to take a backseat to other more celebrated Chinese festivals, such as National Day<\/strong> (\u56fd\u5e86\u8282 gu\u00f3 q\u00ecng ji\u00e9) and Spring Festival<\/strong> (\u6625\u8282 ch\u016bn ji\u00e9). These days, Chinese love-birds celebrate the Qixi Festival in a fashion all-to similar to Valentine\u2019s Day in the West \u2013 dinner dates, flowers, and candy.<\/p>\n

In fact, most young Chinese probably won\u2019t even be able to explain the legend of this holiday, as they are more concerned with celebrating the Western way. Thankfully, the history behind this ancient festival is much more interesting than a Hallmark card and a box of chocolates, and hopefully its traditions are preserved.<\/p>\n

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A Poem and a Video<\/h2>\n

Not surprisingly, this romantic festival has been the subject of many poems over the years. Here’s a great one called “Far, Far Away, the Cowherd<\/strong>” (\u8fe2\u8fe2\u7275\u725b\u661f ti\u00e1o ti\u00e1o qi\u0101n ni\u00fa x\u012bng):<\/p>\n

\u8fe2\u8fe2\u7275\u725b\u661f
\n\u768e\u768e\u6cb3\u6c49\u5973
\n\u7ea4\u7ea4\u64e2\u7d20\u624b
\n\u672d\u672d\u5f04\u673a\u677c
\n\u7ec8\u65e5\u4e0d\u6210\u7ae0
\n\u6ce3\u6d95\u96f6\u5982\u96e8
\n\u6cb3\u6c49\u6e05\u4e14\u6d45
\n\u76f8\u53bb\u590d\u51e0\u8bb8
\n\u76c8\u76c8\u4e00\u6c34\u95f4
\n\u8109\u8109\u4e0d\u5f97\u8bed<\/p>\n

ti\u00e1o ti\u00e1o qi\u0101n ni\u00fa x\u012bng
\nji\u01ceo ji\u01ceo h\u00e9h\u00e0n n\u01da
\nxi\u0101n xi\u0101n zhu\u00f3 s\u00f9 sh\u01d2u
\nzh\u00e1 zh\u00e1 n\u00f2ng j\u012b zh\u00f9
\nzh\u014dng r\u00ec b\u00f9 ch\u00e9ng zh\u0101ng
\nq\u00ec t\u00ec l\u00edng r\u00fa y\u01d4
\nh\u00e9 h\u00e0n q\u012bng qi\u011b qi\u01cen
\nxi\u0101ng q\u00f9 f\u00f9 j\u01d0x\u01d4
\ny\u00edng y\u00edng y\u012b shu\u01d0 ji\u0101n
\nm\u00f2 m\u00f2 b\u00f9 d\u00e9 y\u01d4<\/p>\n

Far, far away, the Cowherd,
\nFair, fair, the Weaving Maid,
\nNimbly move her slender white finger,
\nClick-clack goes her weaving-loom.
\nAll day she weaves, yet her web is still not done.
\nAnd her tears fall like rain.
\nClear and shallow the Milky Way,
\nThey are not far apart!
\nBut the stream brims always between.
\nAnd, gazing at each other, they cannot speak.<\/p>\n

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If you want a challenging listening exercise, I found this video on YouTube where the speaker reads the poem out loud and explains it. The video is clearly meant for young Chinese students so it’s great for those of us who are trying to learn the language!<\/p>\n