How China does Valentine’s Day

by WEI LI

Couples get romantic on Qixi, a lovers’ festival similar to Valentine’s Day. PHOTO/Visual China Group via Getty Images

Many countries celebrate love on Feb. 14, Valentine’s Day — a holiday named for Saint Valentine, a third-century Roman clergyman who secretly performed weddings for soldiers forbidden to marry under Emperor Claudius II.

But there are those that honor romance on different days with their own legends.

China’s Qixi, which occurs on the seventh day of the seventh month on the Chinese calendar – early August on the Western calendar – is a couples’ holiday based on the Chinese folktale about two star-crossed lovers: “Niulang,” or Cattleman, and “Zhinü,” the Weaver Lady.

Bridge to love

In Chinese myth, Cattleman was a handsome young mortal who once healed a dying ox. In return for saving his life, the ox helped Cattleman find a wife.

“At dusk seven goddesses will come down from heaven to bathe in the nearby lake,” he told Cattleman, according to legend, adding that the youngest, Zhinü, was the prettiest. The two met, fell in love and decided to get married.

The goddess was a weaver fairy and the youngest daughter of the almighty goddess of heaven. Her mother, furious that her daughter had married a mere man, sent her celestial soldiers to return Weaver Lady to heaven.

The Conversation for more

Comments are closed.