七夕节: China's Valentines Day

August 26th of this year is the seventh day of the seventh month on the Chinese Lunar Calendar. Now commonly referred to as China's Valentine's Day, the Double Seventh has been a lovers' holiday for over 2000 years, commemorating the legend of two star-crossed lovers, a poor young Cowherd, Niu Lang (牛郎), and Zhi Nü (織女), a weaver of clouds and the immortal granddaughter of the Jade Emperor, the King of Heaven. 

Legend has it that Niu Lang was a masterful flute player. 

One day, Zhi Nü hears him playing, and is so moved by his music that she leaves her weaving and comes down from heaven to be with him. The two fall deeply in love, but, alas, the Law's of Heaven strictly forbid relationships between mortals and immortals. When Zhi Nü's mother, Wangmu the Queen Mother of the Western Heaven, finds out, she is furious. With an army of celestial soldiers, Wangmu descends to Earth and takes Zhi Nü back to Heaven for trial. Loyal to his love, Niu Lang chases after his bride, flying in a boat made from his lone ox's horn. As he closes in on his beloved and her captors, Wangmu, with a golden pin from her hair, dashes a mighty white river in the sky (the river we now know as the Milky Way) and forever separates the two lovers. The Phoenix, with her kind heart, takes pity on the two lovers. Once a year, she calls all of the magpies of Heaven and Earth to form a bridge over the Milky Way, allowing the lovers to be reunited on the night of the Double Seventh - the seventh night of the seventh month. Looking into the summer night sky, one can still see the two lovers, stars now known in the West as Altair and Vega.

Originally, Qi Xi Jie (七夕节) was referred to with names such as "Begging for Skills Festival", "Daughters' Festival", or "Girls' Day" because on this night young women would pray to Zhi Nü, the "Weaving Maid", for dexterity and nimble fingers. In hopes that the Weaving Maid will bless the girls with such skills, they will make gifts such as items of furniture out of slender pieces of wood, and they will demonstrate their skills by threading a needle in the moonlight.

To find out the Weaving Maid's response to their prayers, some girls will put a small spider in a box to see if it's made a web by the next day. A neatly woven and well-shaped web foretells a gift of nimble hands from the Weaving Maid.

One of the most famous poems of this legend is Fairy of the Magpie Bridge, by Qin Guan.

Translated by Kylie Hsu

Among the beautiful clouds,

Over the heavenly river,

Crosses the weaving maiden.

A night of rendezvous,

Across the autumn sky,

Surpasses joy on earth.

Moments of tender love and dream,

So sad to leave the magpie bridge.

Eternal love between us two,

Shall withstand the time apart.

.我祝大家七夕节快乐.