Qixi Festival ≠ Chinese Valentine's Day! Let’s see how the ancients celebrated the Qixi Festival
The Chinese Valentine's Day is one of my country's traditional festivals with a long history. It is a traditional festival in Chinese regions and some East Asian countries influenced by Han culture. It is celebrated on the seventh day of the seventh month in the lunar calendar. July has beautiful names such as Qiao Yue, Gua Yue, Orchid Autumn, Zhao Qiu, Xin Qiu, Shou Qiu, Xiang Yue, Meng Qiu and Chu Qiu. If you want to know more about the seventh month of the lunar calendar in 2020, please follow Mr. Shui Mo’s website!Chinese Valentine's DayThe records of "Qixi" customs in the Han, Tang and Song dynasties have almost nothing to do with love. Volume 1 of Miscellaneous Records of Western Capital by Liu Xin of the Han Dynasty records: "Beautiful girls of the Han Dynasty often threaded seven-hole needles in the Kaijin Tower on the seventh day of the seventh month in the lunar calendar, and people all practiced it." This means that young girls in the Han Dynasty often threaded needles with seven-hole needles arranged in a row towards the moon in the Kaijin Tower on the seventh day of the seventh month in the lunar calendar, and people at that time followed suit. This is the earliest documented record of Qixi customs.Therefore, the original basic customs of the Chinese Valentine's Day had nothing to do with love, and the most important customs in later generations - begging for cleverness and praying for children - also lacked a direct connection with love. The legend of the Cowherd and the Weaver Girl was absorbed by the Qixi Festival in the process of its development, and it is indeed more or less related to love. Moving verses like "The night sky is as cool as water, I sit and watch the Altair and Vega stars" and "If love is long-lasting, why should it matter if we are together day and night" undoubtedly include the expectation of love and the sadness of parting with a loved one. However, this festival is not so closely related to love. In fact, in ancient times, the Lantern Festival, Shangsi Festival, and even Cold Food Festival and Qingming Festival seemed to be more capable of fulfilling the responsibilities of Valentine's Day than the Qixi Festival. For most of the ancient times, cities often had curfews at night for reasons of public security and other aspects. The Lantern Festival is one of the few times when the curfew can be suspended and people can move freely at night. The Lantern Festival and bridge-walking activities were rare opportunities for ancient women to break free from restrictions to a certain extent and temporarily leave their homes to go out and participate in activities. People also take advantage of this rare opportunity to complete the "hookup" business. In addition, the ancients often set a few legal holidays between Qingming Festival and Cold Food Festival (for example, there were generally seven days off during the Tang and Song dynasties). Just like today, the ancients would also use this golden week to travel and outing, which was the most important part of the festival at that time. Like the Lantern Festival, this is also a time when women can go out and do activities, and it is also a high-incidence period for romantic encounters. In fact, this custom has existed since ancient times. How did the ancients celebrate the Qixi Festival?Custom 1: Happy spiders respond to ingenuity <br /> This is an earlier way of begging for ingenuity, which began roughly during the Southern and Northern Dynasties. Wang Renyu of the Five Dynasties recorded in "Kaiyuan Tianbao Yishi" that "On July 7, catch a small spider and put it in a small box. Open the box the next day. If the spider has made a web, it is a good omen.Custom 2: Throwing a needle to test your skill <br /> This is a variation of the custom of threading a needle to pray for skill on the Qixi Festival. It originated from threading a needle, but is different from threading a needle. It was a popular Qixi Festival custom during the Ming and Qing Dynasties. At noon on July 7, women put needles into water and look at the shadow of the needles on the bottom of the water. The one with more complex shapes and more realistic images is more skillful. Custom 3: Celebrating the Birthday of the Cow <br /> On the Qixi Festival, children will pick wild flowers and hang them on the horns of the cow, which is also called "celebrating the birthday of the cow". According to legend, after the Queen Mother of the West separated the Cowherd and the Weaver Girl with the Milky Way, the old cow asked the Cowherd to peel off its skin and ride on its hide to see the Weaver Girl so that the Cowherd could cross the Milky Way to see the Weaver Girl. In order to commemorate the old cow’s sacrificial spirit, people have the custom of “celebrating the cow’s birthday”. Custom 4: Worship the Weaver Girl "Worshiping the Weaver Girl" is purely a matter for young girls and young women. Most of them would make appointments with their friends or neighbors in advance to gather five or six people, or as many as ten people, to jointly organize and hold the ceremony. A table is set up under the moonlight, and offerings such as tea, wine, fruits, longan, red dates, hazelnuts, peanuts, melon seeds, etc. are placed on the table; there are also a few flowers, tied with red paper and inserted in a vase, and a small incense burner is placed in front of the flowers. After burning incense and praying in front of the table, everyone sat around the table, eating peanuts and melon seeds, looking at the Vega constellation, silently reciting their own thoughts, and played until midnight before dispersing. Custom 5: Worship Kuixing <br /> It is said that July 7th is the birthday of Kuixing. Kuixing is the god of literature, and scholars who want to achieve fame and success particularly venerate Kuixing, so they must worship him on the Qixi Festival, praying for his blessing for good luck in the exam. Custom 6: Women Washing Hair <br /> People believe that taking spring water or river water on the Qixi Festival is like taking water from the Milky Way, which has the sacred power of cleansing. Therefore, it has special meaning for women to wash their hair on this day, which means that by washing their hair with holy water from the Milky Way, they will definitely receive the blessing of the Goddess of Weaving. |
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