|
|
 |
 China Food Recipes >>Alcoholic Drinks in China >> What is the
Qixi Festival (the Double Seventh Night
Festival)? |
|
|
What is the
Qixi Festival (the Double Seventh Night
Festival)?
|
|
|
The
seventh lunar month in China falls in hot
summer. In the evening of that day, people
would look up at the starry sky and tell
fairy tales. One of tales says that on this
very night every year, a Cowherd and a Weaving
Maid will walk across a bridge spanned by
magpies over the Heavenly River (the Milky
River). It is said that the Weaving Maid
is the seventh daughter of the Queen Mother.
She works at her shuttle in Heaven, while
the Cowherd herds cows in the human world.
Once the Weaving Maid came down from Heaven
and by chance met the Cowherd. They two
fell in love, got married and settled down
in the countryside. When the Queen of Mother
found this out. She brought her daughter
back to Heaven, separating the pair with
expanse of the Milky River. However, the
true love between the Cowherd and Weaving
Maid moved a kind-hearted phoenix who called
on all the magpies in the universe to form
a bridge across the river for the couple
to cross and reunite on the evening of the
seventh day of the seventh month. This story
represents the wishes of people for a happier
life.
This
article by Yang Tianqing and Daniel Kister.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
