| Qixi Festival | |
|---|---|
.JPG) The reunion of The Weaver Girl and the Cowherd on the bridge of magpies, a 19th-century artwork in Beijing | |
| Also called | Qiqiao Festival |
| Observed by | Chinese |
| Type | Cultural, Asian |
| Date | 7th day of the 7th lunar month |
| 2023 date | 22 August |
| 2024 date | 10 August |
| 2025 date | 29 August |
| Related to | Tanabata (Japan), Chilseok (Korea), Thất Tịch (Vietnam) |
| Qixi | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Chinese | 七夕 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Literal meaning | "Evening of Sevens" | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Qiqiao | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Chinese | 乞巧 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Literal meaning | "beseeching craftsmanship" | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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The Qixi Festival (Chinese: 七夕; pinyin: Qīxī; lit. 'Seventh Night [of the seventh month]'), also known as the Qiqiao Festival (Chinese: 乞巧; pinyin: Qǐqiǎo; lit. 'Beseeching craftsmanship'), 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]
- ^ a b Zhao 2015, 13.
- ^ a b c d Brown & Brown 2006, 72.
- ^ a b Poon 2011, 100.
- ^ a b c d Melton & Baumann 2010, 912–913.
- ^ a b Wei, Liming (2010). Chinese Festivals: Traditions, Customs and Rituals (Second ed.). Beijing: China Intercontinental Press. pp. 43–46. ISBN 9787508516936.
- ^ Schomp 2009, 70.
- ^ Schomp 2009, 89.
- ^ Welch 2008, 228.
- ^ Chester Beatty Library, online Archived 2014-10-22 at the Wayback Machine.
- ^ "Magpie Festival". prezi.com. Archived from the original on 18 November 2021. Retrieved 18 November 2021.