Qixi Festival, also known as the Festival to Plead for Skills or Double Seventh Festival，is the most romantic holiday in ancient China. Nowadays, QixiFestival is regarded as the Chinese Valentine’s Day. It is celebrated on the 7th day of 7th month on the Chinese lunar calendar and this year it falls on August 16.
In ancient China, there spread a romantic love legend about the origin of the Festival. The legend goes that, Zhi Nu (a fairy) and Niu Lang (a mortal) fell in love with each other and then got married. But the God of Heaven and the Queen Mother was not satisfied with their marriage and seperated them at last. Taking their sincere feelings into consideration, the couple was allowed to meet at the Magpie Bridge once a year – on the 7th day of 7th lunar month.
The history of Qixi Festival can date back to the period of Han Dynasty (202BC~220). During the Festival, girls will prepare fruits, melons and incense as offerings to Zhi Nu, praying to master high skills in needlecraft and wishing to find ideal husbands.
In some parts of China, people celebrate it by writing wishes (especially in the form of poetry) on small pieces of paper and then hanging them on bamboos. There exists the custom of floating bamboos with wishes on the river during the midnight on that day. In the evening of that day, if you stand under the grape trellis, you could probably hear Zhi Nu and Niu Lang’s talk.
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