What are the customs of Chinese Valentine’s Day? Is Qixi Festival the same as Valentine's Day?

What are the customs of Chinese Valentine’s Day? Is Qixi Festival the same as Valentine's Day?
The customs of different festivals are also different, but not everyone knows what the customs of the Chinese Valentine's Day are. So, let's take a look at what the customs of the Chinese Valentine's Day are. The arrival of the seventh month of the lunar calendar indicates that the scorching summer heat is gradually fading away and the heat is gradually subsiding. For more information about the auspiciousness and inauspiciousness of the seventh month of the lunar calendar in 2021, come to Shuimo.com to learn about it.

What are the customs of Chinese Valentine’s Day?

There is a custom of worshipping gods on the Qixi Festival
In some villages in western Guangdong, there is a custom of making dumplings to worship gods on July 7th. According to traditional customs, people worship the "Lord" (Buddha) in the temple first, and then worship the God of Land. The offerings to the gods usually include rice, three kinds of tea, five kinds of wine, fruits, etc.
There is a custom of worshipping the Cowherd on the Qixi Festival
According to some books from the Ming and Qing Dynasties and the Republic of China, the skills displayed by Guangzhou girls on the Chinese Valentine's Day included embroidered shoes the size of a grain of rice, various fans the size of fingernails, exquisite and light small silk curtains, and specially made lotus, jasmine, rose, night-blooming primrose, etc. The flowerpot was only the size of a drinking cup, with two flowers painted in the pot, one real and one fake, which made it difficult to distinguish. On the seventh night, the worship of the god continues as it did the previous night, which is called "worshiping the Cowherd", and is usually performed by a boy.
There is a custom of worshipping the bed mother on the Qixi Festival
In addition to worshipping the Seventh Niangma on the Taiwanese Valentine's Day, people often prepare a small bowl of oily rice and bring it to the room to worship the "bed mother". The two should have similar meanings.
There is a custom of dyeing nails on the Qixi Festival
Dyeing nails is a Chinese Valentine's Day custom that is popular in southwest China. Young girls in many areas like to wash their hair with tree sap mixed with water during festivals. This not only makes them young and beautiful, but also helps unmarried girls find their ideal husband as soon as possible.
There is a custom of stargazing on the Qixi Festival
Sitting and watching the Altair and Vega stars on the night of the Chinese Valentine's Day is a traditional folk custom. On the night of the Chinese Valentine's Day, beautiful young ladies will place pre-prepared seasonal fruits on the table and worship towards the bright moon and the sky. They will also hold various ceremonies to beg for cleverness, devoutly begging the Vega goddess to give them clever hands and praying for themselves to find a good match for love.

Was Qixi Festival originally Valentine’s Day?

No, originally Qixi Festival was not Valentine's Day. It is because of the historical development of Qixi Festival, which has been endowed with the beautiful love legend of "Cowherd and Weaver Girl", making it a festival symbolizing love. It is thus considered to be the most romantic traditional festival in China, and in contemporary times it has even developed the cultural meaning of "Chinese Valentine's Day".
From the ancient literature, we can see that in ancient times, Qixi Festival was not Valentine's Day, but actually more like Women's Day.
The Song Dynasty's "Dream of the Red Chamber" records: "The seventh day of the seventh month is called the Qixi Festival. At dusk on that day, all the children and girls in the city, regardless of their wealth, wear new clothes. Rich families...then let their girls look at the moon, look up to the Big Dipper and worship, then beg for cleverness from women and cows. Or they take a small spider and put it in a small gold or silver box. The next morning, if they see its web is round and straight, they are called "getting cleverness". "
In fact, the story of the Cowherd and the Weaver Girl had already begun to spread widely in the Song Dynasty, but most of the participants were women and children. Children naturally participated in all festivals, so strictly speaking, the ancient Chinese Valentine's Day was actually "Women's Day."

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