Qixi Festival, also known as Qiqiao Festival, the Festival of the Seventh Sister, the Festival of the Daughters, the Begging Festival, the Meeting of the Seventh Maiden, the Tanabata Festival, the Day of the Ox and the Oxen, is a traditional Chinese folk festival. The Qixi Festival, which evolved from the worship of the starry hosts, is traditionally the birthday of the Seventh Sister, and is named Qixi Festival because the worship of the Seventh Sister is held on the seventh day of the seventh month of the lunar calendar. The traditional customs of Qixi Festival include worshipping the Seventh Sister, praying for blessings and making wishes, begging for skillful art, watching the Altair and Vega stars, praying for marriage, and storing Qixi water. Through historical development, Qixi Festival has been endowed with the beautiful love legend of "Cowherd and Weaving Maiden", making it a festival symbolizing love, and thus considered the most romantic traditional festival in China, and in contemporary times, it has even generated the cultural meaning of "Chinese Valentine's Day".
The Qixi Festival is not only a festival for worshipping the Seventh Sister, but also a festival of love. It is a comprehensive festival with the theme of praying for blessings, begging for skillful arts and love, and with women as the main body, using the "Cowherd and Weaving Maiden" folklore as the carrier. The "Cowherd and Weaving Maiden" of Qixi originates from people's worship of natural celestial phenomena. In ancient times, people corresponded the astronomical star area with the geographic area, and this correspondence is called "division of stars" for astronomy and "division of area" for geography. According to legend, every year on the seventh day of the seventh month, the Cowherd and the Weaving Maiden will meet at the Magpie Bridge in the sky.
The festival of Qixi Qiqiao originated in the Han Dynasty, Ge Hong's Xijing Miscellany in the Eastern Jin Dynasty recorded that "women in the Han Dynasty wore seven-buttoned dresses on the seventh day of the seventh month, and people were accustomed to this custom", which is the earliest record of begging for skillfulness that we have seen in the ancient literature. Later, in the poems of Tang and Song dynasties, women begging for skillful arts were also mentioned repeatedly, and Wang Jian of Tang dynasty said in a poem that "the stars in the sky are shining brightly, and girls are busy begging for skillful arts on Qixi Festival". According to the Kaiyuan tianbao Legacy records: Tang Taizong and concubines held night feast in the Qing Palace every Qixi Festival, the court ladies begged for skillful art, this custom in the folklore is also enduring, and continue from generation to generation.
Gansu Longnan Qiqiao Daughter Festival, is a set of beliefs and worship, poetry and song, music and dance, arts and crafts, labor skills, etc. as one of the comprehensive festival folk cultural activities, has been through more than 2,000 years of inheritance of the evolution of the ancient Chinese Begging Customs, is known as the "living fossil", and is a veritable "China's Daughter Festival". The Xihe Qiqiao Daughter Festival begins on the evening of June 30 of the lunar calendar every year and lasts until the evening of the seventh day of the seventh month of the lunar calendar, a period of seven days and eight nights, making it one of the longest-lasting folkloric activities. The whole event is divided into seven sessions, each accompanied by songs and dances, and several characteristic ceremonies, thus a large number of chants, music scores, dance forms and worship ceremonies related to farming civilization have been preserved, as well as textile workers, costumes, props, and the production of offerings and fruits related to life. The long duration, large scale, large number of participants and complete preservation of folklore programs are unique in the country.
"Seven" has a special meaning in ancient China. Ancient people often regarded "seven" as a cycle of yin and yang, so the day of the seventh day of the seventh month of the lunar calendar was called Qixi Festival, also known as Beggar's Day, Daughter's Day, and the Seven Maidens' Meeting. On the Qixi Festival, beauties pray for blessings in the beautiful scenery and enjoy the Altair and Vega stars under the bright starry sky, therefore, this day is also considered the most romantic traditional Chinese festival. The Qixi Festival, which stretches over 2,000 years, not only carries the happy aspirations and life ideals of the forefathers for ingenuity, offspring, beauty, wisdom and longevity, but also is a concentrated manifestation of the virtue of diligence and labor wisdom of the Chinese nation.
Traditionally, the Qixi Festival evolved from the worship of the stars and hosts. During different historical periods in ancient China, the customs and activities of the Qixi Festival underwent developmental changes in form and content. Ge Hong of the Eastern Jin Dynasty recorded in Xijing Miscellany: "Women in the Han Dynasty wore clothes with seven buttons on the seventh day of the seventh month, and people were accustomed to this custom." It can be seen that the traditional customs of the early Qixi Festival were mainly based on begging for skillful arts. Its customs are various, the girl with five-color thread through the seven-hole needle, as well as the joy of the spider to bring skillful arts, throwing needles to test the skillful arts, etc., the literati and talented people in this day also worship the Kui Star. In the Song Dynasty, Qixi Festival became a grand festival celebrated by the whole country, and people bought fruits and articles in the "Qiqiao market" and "Qiqiao Building". In the area of Tianhe of Guangdong, Yunxi of Hubei, and Xihe of Gansu, the local folklore of Qiaoqiao, such as eating Qiao fruits, watching the play of seven women, worshipping Qiao Niang, doing manicure, and washing hair, etc., are still preserved. In general, the rich cultural connotations and customs and traditions of Qiqiao Festival, despite the differences in different times and places, are united with the diligence and wisdom of the working people as well as the colorful folk customs.
In ancient Chinese poems, there are many descriptions of the Qixi Festival, "Every family begs for skillful art to the moon," "The girls are busy begging for skillful art." As people's mode of production and concept of life changed, poets began to sing about love through the story of the Cowherd and the Weaving Maiden. From "the bright Altair star, the distant river maiden" to "After many years since we last parted, we meet again today. New favorites and old hates are unspeakable. A beautiful night is always short-lived. The fate of mankind should not be rushed by heaven", to "If two people's relationship lasts, why should they be together every day". From the evolution of the content of these works, it can be seen that the love element of Qixi has been gradually amplified, and the love legend of the Cowherd and the Weaving Maiden has become an important symbol of Qixi.
On Qixi Festival, couples express their love by giving each other gifts, and some young people even deliberately choose to receive a marriage license on Qixi, announcing to the people that they have made this major decision in their lives to enter the hall of marriage hand in hand. Wang Fenling, in the article The Legend of the Weaving Maiden and Chinese Valentine's Day, said, "Qixi, also known as the 'Qiqiao', shows that working people like the Cowherd and the Weaving Maiden are respected, and that people beg for skillful art from them to learn the skills of their labor. This is consistent with appreciating the steadfast love between them." Looking back at the culture of begging and the legend of the Weaving Maiden, it is more of a beautiful expression of the spirit of endless struggle and romantic feelings of the Chinese nation, the infinite love of labor and life, and the hope and praise of eternal love.
As one of the traditional Chinese festivals, Qixi has a long historical origin and rich spiritual core, and has a lot of attention and heat at present. In the journey of the new era, it is more important to enhance cultural consciousness, firm cultural confidence, traditional cultural practices and modern fashion form of intermingling and integration, to promote the traditional culture more prosperous, present the beauty of traditional Chinese culture.