Qixi Festival – commonly referred to as Chinese Valentine's Day – takes place every year on the seventh day of the seventh month, according to the Chinese lunar calendar.
Despite not being an official holiday, Qixi is considered one of the most romantic among traditional Chinese festivals.
The origins of the festival, which honours true love, comes from a 2000-year-old Chinese fairy tale about the love between a goddess and cow herder.
This year Qixi - which literally translates to Evening of Sevens Festival - will be celebrated on Thursday, August 4. Here's what you need to know about the romantic legend behind Qixi and how people celebrate the day of love today.
What is the origin of Qixi Festival?
The story behind Qixi Festival goes that Zhi Nu, a goddess known for weaving skills, visited the mortal world where she met and fell in love with cow herder Niu Lang.
The pair got married and had two children but were separated by Zhi Nu’s mother, the queen mother of heaven, who took her daughter back to heaven.
Niu Lang was heartbroken. However, an old cow the herder had once rescued revealed that he was actually a god injured in the mortal world.
The cow told Niu Lang that he could use his skin to make shoes that could fly him to heaven. When the cow died, Niu Lang along with the couple's children tried to find Zhi Nu.
However, the queen mother of heaven used her hair pin to create a river of stars that would become the Milky Way to separate the two lovers.
The cries of the heartbroken couple touched the magpies around them, with thousands of them forming a bridge for the couple to walk over the river of stars.
Finally, the queen mother agreed to let the couple meet one night out of every year: Qixi, where they reunite by walking over the bridge formed by the magpies.
How is Qixi festival celebrated?
The romantic folklore behind Qixi means the festival has come to symbolise true love.
During ancient times, girls would offer fruits and food to Zhi Nu on the night of the festival, praying for skilful hands just like the goddess to weave with so they can also find their ideal husbands.
Children also pick wild flowers to hang on ox’s horns in memory of the cow-god who sacrificed himself.
The festival is marked by different traditions across China. In China’s southeastern city Shaoxing, girls hide in pumpkin farms over the belief that those who can hear the whispers of Niu Lang and Zhi Nu would find love soon.
In Hunan province, women go to fetch water from the mountains. They wash their hair with this water, which they believe to be holy, so that they can be blessed by Zhi Nu.
Some people even collect dew, which symbolises the tears from the couple, in the early morning following Qixi. It's believed that drinking it would make them smarter.
However, it's to be noted that Qixi isn't the only romantic day that Chinese people celebrate. They also celebrate the traditional Valentine's Day on February 14 – much like the rest of the world - as well as the Lantern Festival over the Lunar New Year.
