China's traditional folk festival-Qixi Festival (China Valentine's Day)

Qixi Festival, also known as Qiqiao Festival, Qijie Festival, Daughter's Day, Qiqiao Festival, Qianniang Meeting, Qixi Festival, Ox and Ox Lady Day, Qixi Festival, etc., is a traditional folk festival in China. The festival time is on the seventh day of the seventh month of the lunar calendar every year. This year's Qixi Festival is on Tuesday, August 25, 2020, with 6 days left. The Qixi Festival evolved from the worship of stars and is the birthday of the Seventh Sister in the traditional sense. It is named "Qixi Festival" because the worship of the "Seventh Sister" is held on the seventh evening of the seventh month. Praying Seventh Sister, praying for blessings and making wishes, begging for skillful skills, sitting and watching the morning glory star Vega, praying for marriage, storing water on the Qixi Festival, etc. are traditional customs of Qixi Festival.

Through historical development, Qixi Festival has been endowed with the beautiful love legend of "Cowherd and Weaver Girl", making it a festival symbolizing love. It is therefore regarded as the most romantic traditional festival in China, and in contemporary times, it has given rise to the cultural meaning of "China Valentine's Day." Qixi Festival is not only a festival to pay homage to Seventh Sister, but also a festival of love. It is a comprehensive festival based on the folk legend of "Cowherd and Weaver Girl", with praying, begging for cleverness, and love as the themes, and with women as the main body. It began in ancient times, became popular in the Western Han Dynasty, and flourished in the Song Dynasty. In ancient times, Qixi Festival was an exclusive festival for beautiful women.

Among the many folk customs on Qixi Festival, some have gradually disappeared, but quite a few have been continued by people. The Qixi Festival originated in China, and there is also a tradition of celebrating the Qixi Festival in some Asian countries influenced by Chinese culture such as Japan, the Korean Peninsula, and Vietnam. On May 20, 2006, Qixi Festival was included in the first batch of national intangible cultural heritage lists by the State Council of the People's Republic of China.

Origin of the festival 1: Worship of natural phenomena. Ancient China's astrology culture has a long history and is extensive and profound. The ancients explored the mysteries of the universe from a very early age, and derived a complete and profound stargazing culture."Cowherd and Weaver Girl" is a typical example. The legend of the Cowherd and Weaver Girl on the Seventh Festival originated from people's worship of natural astronomical phenomena. As early as ancient times, the ancients who pursued order not only planned the sky in an orderly manner, but also corresponded the stars and the ground areas one by one. This correspondence relationship is in astronomy. It is called "sub-stars", and in terms of the ground, it is called "dividing fields".

In the ancient constellation system, the "Ox Lodge" consisted of six stars located on the east bank of the Milky Way. They were like two inverted triangles, one above and the other, which were very characteristic, but the upper triangle was larger and brighter. The small triangle below is located just on the ecliptic. These stars form a cow with two horns on its head but only three feet, so the ancients called it "morning glory". There are nine small stars to the south of this "cow", which form the "Tiantian", which is the place where it cultivates. Looking further south, near the southern horizon, there are the nine stars of the "Jiukan", which are water storage. Lowland, used to irrigate farmland.

Next to the east of Niusu is the "Luoyan" 3 star, which is a water conservancy facility similar to a reservoir. "Vega" 3 stars are located in the northern part of the Uxus. Among them,"Vega 1" is the fifth brightest star in the entire sky, second only to "Big Horn", so it is often directly called "Vega". People collectively call "Ox Star" and "Vega Star" the "Cowherd and Vega Girl".

Regarding the specific geographical divisions on the ground corresponding to the astronomical starry sky area of the "Cowherd and Weaver", they are included in the "Han Shu·Geographical Annals":"Guangdong (Yue) is the division between Qiuniu (Cowherd) and Wu Nv (Weaver). Today Cangwu, Yulin, Hepu, Jiaozhi, Jiuzhen, Nanhai and Rinan are all divided into Guangdong." The original meaning of "Qiuniu Wu Nu" was the "sub-star" used in Guangdong (Vietnam) as the corresponding geographical division of the astronomical star area.

Wu actress later evolved into a mythical goddess, known among the folk as the Seventh Sister, the Fairy Goddess, the Seven-Star Goddess, the Seventh Lady, and the Seventh Lady, etc. She was a cloud weaving and textile industry, and a protector of couples, women, and children. July 7th is her birthday. It is said that on the seventh day of July every year, the Cowherd and Weaver Girl meet on the Magpie Bridge in the sky. Later, the people further developed the story and endowed the beautiful love legend of "Cowherd and Weaver Girl".

Origin of the festival 2: Worship of time and numbers Ancient people listed the "seven aspects" of the first month, February 2, March 3, May 5, June 6, July 7, and September 9 as auspicious days. In ancient China, the "heavy day" was considered to be a day when "heaven and earth were connected" and "man and man were connected." Among these "heavy days", it is not difficult to see the ancients 'worship of numbers. For example, nine and five are important numbers, and the ninth and fifth supreme is a symbol of status. "One" means the beginning of all things and a symbol of achievement, status and honor.

"Seven" is the number of beads in each row of the abacus. It is romantic and rigorous, giving people a mysterious beauty. The "July" is expressed as a phased nature of time in the public, and the calculation of time often ends with the "July 7". There are still reservations in Japanese to calculate the current "week" based on "seven days". In Taiwan, July is known as the "happy and auspicious" month. "July" is the same as "auspicious", and "July 7" also means double auspicious. It is an auspicious day. Because the shape of the word Xi in cursive script looks like the continuous "seventy-seven", the age of seventy-seven is also called "Xishou".

The third origin of the festival: Seventh Sister's Birthday, Seventh Sister's Birthday, also known as Seventh Sister's Gathering, Seventh Mother's Birthday, etc. Sister Seven (Vega) is a cloud weaving and textile industry. She is the patron saint of couples, women and children. July 7 is her birthday. Before the founding of New China, the "Seventh Sister's Birthday" was a grand festival for beautiful women. The main activities of "Seventh Sister's Birthday"(Seventh Mother's Birthday) include praying and making wishes, begging for skills, praying for marriage, and protecting the safety of children. Activities such as paying Seventh Sister have been forgotten. Only a very small number of ancestral village clubs still set up incense tables on this festival to pay homage to Seventh Sister. The incense tables are usually ready on the seventh day of the seventh month, and they begin to pray and beg for cleverness from Seventh Sister in the evening.

People's worship of the natural astronomical phenomena of the Cowherd and the Weaver Girl has a long history, dating back to ancient times. The Qixi Festival has a long history and evolved from the worship of stars. It is the birthday of the Seventh Sister in the traditional sense. The introduction of the custom of begging for cleverness on the Seventh Sister's birthday into Xi'an in the north began in the Han Dynasty. The Han Dynasty was a period of spread and integration of customs and habits from the north and south. The collection of historical notes and novels "Xijing Miscellaneous Notes" written by Liu Xin of the Western Han Dynasty and compiled by Ge Hong of the Eastern Jin Dynasty has a record that "Han Cai women often wear a seven-hole needle in the Kaiqin Building on July 7, and everyone learns it." Begging for cleverness during the Qixi Festival is to pray for the seventh sister (Vega Girl) for her ingenuity and her fingers, hoping for a happy marriage and a happy family. Seventh Sister's birthday is called "Seventh Sister's Mother" in southern Fujian, Wenling in Zhejiang, and Taiwan. It is very popular among the people to worship Seventh Sister's Mother, who is regarded as a fairy who protects children's safety and health.

Origin of the festival 4: Reproductive worship "July 7" is a life cycle. "Yellow Emperor's Internal Classic·Suwen·Ancient Innocent Theory":"Men can only reach eighty-eighth, and women can only reach seventy-seventh, but the essence of heaven and earth is exhausted. "It says men have a cycle of 8 years old and women have a cycle of 7 years old. At the age of 7, the woman's kidney qi was strong, and her hair became longer after changing her teeth; on the seventh day, the Ren pulse became clear. Tiangui is the kidney essence and the Ren and Du meridians. According to traditional Chinese medicine,"it is the sea of yin and yang in the body, and the five qi are vital." That is to say, menstruation comes on the seventh day and you can give birth to children. Sanqi has average kidney qi, the last teeth are straight and fully mature. Fourth, the muscles and bones are firm, the hair is extremely long, and the body is strong, reaching its peak. On the fifth seventh day, the Yangming pulse declined, the face began to turn yellow, and hair began to fall out. Sixty-seven "The Sanyang pulse declines at the top, the face is burnt, and the hair begins to white." On July 7,"the Ren pulse is weak, the Taichong pulse is weak, the sky is exhausted, and the tunnel is blocked, so the shape is bad and there is no child" is the end of a life cycle.

The number "seven" also refers to the West, so the encounter on July 7 should be a birth in the end. "The Book of Changes·Restoring the hexagram":"If you repeat the path, you will resume on the seventh day, and the sky will be heaven. "Kong Yingda said: " After the yang qi in heaven was extinct, it only took seven days to resurrect the yang qi. This is the natural principle of heaven, so it is called heaven's heaven. "'Recovery 'means going and coming back, that is, rebirth and reincarnation cycle, so the soul is dispersed in 49 days, and the soul is full in 49 days.

There are many folk customs and activities on the Qixi Festival, including: begging for cleverness activities, worshiping the Weaver Girl, worshiping the Kuixing, Xiangqiao Meeting, receiving dew, worshiping the Seventh Sister, fighting cleverness, begging for marriage, visiting the Seventh Sister's water, storing Qixi water, celebrating the birthday of the ox, paying tribute to Qiqiao, worshiping the cowholers, eating cleverness fruits, young crop fairs, watching stars on the Qixi Festival, listening to whispers, purifying water and videos, sending off clever people, tying red hair strings, washing clothes for girls, tying Qiaodu, playing grinding and drinking fun, etc. Xiaobian will not describe them one by one. If you want to know more, please read this article "What are the customs of the Qixi Festival".

Japan's Qixi Festival is Japan's Qixi Festival. They call it the "Qixi Festival", which means the "Summer Festival." Allegedly introduced from China during the Nara era. Starting from the middle of the Nara era, the Japanese court and upper society imitated the Tang Palace, and Qixi festivals, needle threading begging for cleverness, and Qixi poetry festivals became popular. It continues the custom and habit of "begging for cleverness", but has nothing to do with love. The Qixi Festival was originally the seventh day of the seventh month of the lunar calendar. After the Meiji Restoration, Japan abolished the lunar calendar, so Japan's Qixi Festival falls on July 7th of the Gregorian calendar every year.

Japan's Qixi Festival is not mainly used to pray for love, but to pray for girls to have good skills. At this time of year, adults and children gather together to write wishes and poems on colorful long poem sheets, which are hung on small bamboos in their courtyards, along with paper decorations. This custom began in the Edo period. In the days approaching Qixi Festival, many places will have Qixi bamboo trees, and Qixi wishing trees will be set up in shops selling summer clothes and supermarkets paying for payments.

At some large-scale celebration ceremonies, a bamboo decoration competition (evolved from hanging short wishes) will also be held. Local kindergartens, primary schools and other schools will organize or companies to create their own bamboo decorations, conduct evaluations, and select the most distinctive ones for display. In addition, the annual "Qixi Festival" is held in various parts of Japan every summer. People wear traditional costumes, sing and dance, and the taigo drums are playing. The streets and alleys where "short books" are fluttering are crowded with adults and children watching and playing. In conjunction with the "Qixi Festival", there is also an annual summer fireworks festival.

Qixi Festival on the Korean Peninsula. The most representative custom of the Qixi Festival in South Korea is to pray for the Vega girl, hoping that she will have the same dexterous hands and weave better. That morning, women put melons, cucumbers and other melons on the table and kowtowed and prayed, making the women's weaving skills better and better.

Another important event during the Korean Qixi Festival is sacrifice. Sacrifice can be divided into two types: family sacrifice and group sacrifice. South Korean women have to put clean well water on the altar, and the cowherd and Weaver Girls are no longer sacrificial objects. They mainly pray for the safety of relatives and friends. In some places, field festivals are held to pray for a good harvest. South Korea's Qixi diet is also very particular. Traditional foods include noodles, wheat pancakes, and steamed cakes.

Vietnam Qixi Festival is in Vietnam. The main celebration of Qixi Festival is Chinese. Qixi Festival has a nickname-"Ox Ox and Ox Lady Day." On this day, people will go to the temple to make a wish. The tributes used by Chinese people in Ho Chi Minh City to pay homage to the Qixi Festival are mainly customs in southern China. They mainly include water chestnut, chess piece cake, money cake, peanuts, etc. There are also two types of tributes such as "Wo Yang" and a "Seven Sister Pan" that are closely related to the legend of "Cowherd and Weaver Girl". The young people participating in the event also wrote their expectations for love on a note, making a wish during the ceremony, hoping that they would have a happy family in the future.

Summary: "Qixi Festival" expresses the emotion of "never leaving" and "growing old together" between married men and women, and abides by the commitment of both parties to love. The love story of Cowherd and Weaver Girl is a household name in China. Their firmness and commitment to love are touching, so the Qixi Festival is full of romance. It is said that every seventh day of July, magpies in the world will fly into the sky to build a magpie bridge for the cowherd and the Weaver Girl to meet in the Milky Way. Zhinu is a beautiful, intelligent, and skillful fairy. On this night, women in the mortal world begged her for a smart mind and dexterous hands, and also prayed for a happy marriage.