Interesting facts about Qixi | Know China Learn Chinese

Chocolates, roses, and romantic gifts have occupied the shopping center lately. Our colleague Anthony is aware that a special day is just around the corner.

But as a newcomer to China, he doesn't know what is going on.

Kind reminder: It's Valentine's Day tomorrow. But not the Western one, rather, it's the Chinese Valentine's Day, or qixi.

That makes sense, Anthony thought, but what day is it exactly? And why is it called qixi? He couldn't wait to know the answers.

The day falls on the seventh day of the seventh lunar month and "seven" is qi in Chinese. So that explains qi in the name of the festival. Xi means "night" in ancient Chinese, so qixi means the evening of the seventh day of the seventh month.

But qixi wasn't a festival for lovers from the very beginning. Initially, it was a time for unmarried girls to beg the goddess of weaving for good domestic skills. While begging for good domestic skills, girls also pray for a good husband, so an old romantic legend emerged later, concerning the goddess of weaving.

The story goes that the goddess fell in love with a cow herder, and ran away to live with him. However, her mother was furious about their marriage, as gods and humans are not allowed to live together. So she created the Milky Way to separate the couple.

Fortunately, though, a tiding of magpies was moved by the couple's love and decided that they should form a bridge across the Milky Way to help them reunite every year on the seventh day of the seventh lunar month.

So qixi is also the day when the goddess of weaving and the cow herder reunite. Sad they can only see each other once a year.

This is truly a tragedy, Anthony thought, but he thinks their situations should have improved today with the help of WeChat!

What are your plans for this day after hearing the story of qixi?