Qixi Festival

Qixi Festival
The reunion of The Weaver Girl and the Cowherd on the bridge of magpies, a 19th-century artwork in Beijing
Also calledQiqiao Festival
Observed byChinese
TypeCultural, Asian
Date7th day of the 7th lunar month
2023 date22 August
2024 date10 August
2025 date29 August
Related toTanabata (Japan), Chilseok (Korea), Thất Tịch (Vietnam)
Qixi
Chinese七夕
Literal meaning"Evening of Sevens"
Qiqiao
Chinese乞巧
Literal meaning"beseeching craftsmanship"

The Qixi Festival (Chinese: 七夕), also known as the Qiqiao Festival (Chinese: 乞巧), is a Chinese festival celebrating the annual meeting of Zhinü and Niulang in Chinese mythology.[1][2][3][4] The festival is celebrated on the seventh day of the seventh lunisolar month on the Chinese lunisolar calendar.[1][2][3][4]

A celebration of romantic love, the festival is often described as the traditional Chinese equivalent of Valentine's Day.[5] The festival is derived from Chinese mythology: people celebrate the romantic legend of two lovers, Zhinü and Niulang,[5][2][4] who were the weaver girl and the cowherd, respectively. The tale of The Cowherd and the Weaver Girl has been celebrated in the Qixi Festival since the Han dynasty.[6] The earliest-known reference to this famous myth dates back to more than 2,600 years ago, which was told in a poem from the Classic of Poetry.[7]

The festival has variously been called the Double Seventh Festival,[4] the Chinese Valentine's Day,[8] the Night of Sevens,[2][9] or the Magpie Festival.[10]

  1. ^ a b Zhao 2015, 13.
  2. ^ a b c d Brown & Brown 2006, 72.
  3. ^ a b Poon 2011, 100.
  4. ^ a b c d Melton & Baumann 2010, 912–913.
  5. ^ a b Wei, Liming (2010). Chinese Festivals: Traditions, Customs and Rituals (Second ed.). Beijing: China Intercontinental Press. pp. 43–46. ISBN 9787508516936.
  6. ^ Schomp 2009, 70.
  7. ^ Schomp 2009, 89.
  8. ^ Welch 2008, 228.
  9. ^ Chester Beatty Library, online Archived 2014-10-22 at the Wayback Machine.
  10. ^ "Magpie Festival". prezi.com. Archived from the original on 18 November 2021. Retrieved 18 November 2021.

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