Qixi Festival
Next: August 8, 2027
Magpies build a bridge for love.
The story
Where it comes from
Qixi (七夕), 'the Night of Sevens', falls on the seventh day of the seventh lunar month and grew from one of China's best-loved legends. The Weaver Girl, a heavenly maiden, married a humble cowherd, until the Queen Mother of the West drew a river across the sky with her silver hairpin to part them. Only on this night each year may they meet, on a bridge of magpies. The two stars were written about as early as the Warring States period, and in 2006 Qixi was named in China's first national list of intangible cultural heritage.
How it's celebrated
It was long a festival for girls and young women, also called Qiqiao, 'begging for skill'. They set out fruit under the moon, prayed to the Weaver Girl for clever hands and a happy match, and tried to thread needles by moonlight. In Hong Kong the night is the Seventh Sister's Birthday, when flowers, fruit, cakes and paper clothes for the Seventh Sister are laid out as offerings. Today many couples keep it as a Chinese Valentine's Day.
Did you know
- The oldest Qixi custom, threading a needle with seven eyes on the seventh night, is recorded at the Han dynasty court.
- Folk belief says that if you sit under a trellis of melons or gourds on Qixi night, you may overhear the two lovers whispering.
- Japan's Tanabata, kept on 7 July, grew from the same tale: there the lovers are Orihime and Hikoboshi, the stars Vega and Altair.
The greeting
七夕快乐 · Qīxī kuàilè
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