The thousand-year-old charm of the Qiqiao Festival is shared at this moment on the Qixi Festival. On August 23rd, the first day of the seventh lunar month, the 13th Longnan Qiqiao Girls Festival, with the theme of "Meet Longnan, Love for Qiqiao", opened in Xihe County, Longnan City, Gansu Province. This event will last from the evening of the 22nd to the 29th, spanning seven days and eight nights. Through a series of cultural activities that blend tradition and innovation, it will showcase the unique charm of "Xihe Qiqiao", a national intangible cultural heritage.
The long history and profound culture of Longnan have given birth to the Qiqiao folk custom, a cultural treasure passed down for a thousand years. The holding of this event is a powerful measure for Longnan to actively integrate into the province's "Seven Places, One Screen and One Channel" construction and build a national important cultural inheritance and innovation base. It is a vivid practice of promoting the upgrading of the cultural tourism and health care industry and accelerating regional coordinated development. It is of great significance for promoting the revitalization of traditional festivals, strengthening the protection and inheritance of cultural heritage, and promoting the in-depth integration of culture and tourism.
At the opening ceremony, the large-scale skit "Qiao · Yuan" integrated the seven traditional Qiqiao rituals, including sitting on Qiao, welcoming Qiao, worshipping Qiao, bowing to Qiao, entertaining Qiao, divining Qiao and sending off Qiao, into the narrative of songs and dances through artistic techniques, presenting the audience with a feast of folk culture spanning a thousand years. At the same time, the local original song "Xihe Awaits You" was released both online and offline, allowing the festival to not only carry forward the essence of culture but also showcase the civilization of The Times.
The Xihe Qiqiao Festival is hailed as a "living fossil" of ancient Chinese Qiqiao customs. Its complete Qiqiao ceremony and profound emotional connotations reflect the cultural psychology of the Chinese nation that yearns for wisdom and pursues beauty. This year's Qiqiao Festival strives to achieve the dynamic inheritance and sustainable development of Qiqiao culture through innovative forms and contents of activities.
The Xihe Qiqiao Festival, which has been passed down to this day, has a history of over a thousand years and was included in the first batch of national intangible cultural heritage protection list in 2008. In recent years, Xihe County has continuously expanded the influence of Qiqiao culture through the model of "culture + festivals + tourism", effectively promoting the integrated development of rural revitalization and cultural tourism.
It is learned that this series of Qiqiao cultural activities will last for 7 days and 8 nights. During this period, a series of activities will be held successively, including the Qiqiao Festival performance, the online promotion conference for investment attraction, and the promotion of trade-in for consumer goods. Compared with previous years, this year's 13th Longnan Qiqiao Girls Festival has made new breakthroughs in theme, form and content, with distinct features and numerous highlights.