This year’s Valentine’s Day in China is:
Monday, February 12th (the Lantern Festival is the Chinese Valentine’s Day)
Tuesday, July 31st (Chinese Valentine’s Day) )
Wednesday, August 30th (Chinese Valentine's Day, leap July)
The following is for reference only:
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Chinese Valentine's Day
The Lantern Festival is also a romantic festival. In the traditional feudal society, the Lantern Festival also gave people It provides an opportunity for unmarried men and women to get to know each other. Young girls in traditional society are not allowed to go out for free activities, but they can go out together during festivals. The Lantern Festival lantern viewing is just an opportunity for friendship. Unmarried men and women can also use the lantern viewing lanterns to make friends. Find someone yourself. During the Lantern Festival, it is another time for young men and women to meet their lovers.
In Taiwan, there is also a traditional custom that unmarried women secretly pick onions or vegetables on the Lantern Festival night and they will marry a good husband. It is commonly known as: "Stealing onions, marrying a good man", "Stealing vegetables, marrying a good man", "Stealing vegetables, marrying a good husband" "Good son-in-law", girls who hope for a happy marriage will go to the vegetable garden to secretly pick onions or green vegetables on the night of the Lantern Festival, looking forward to future family happiness. In the Tang Dynasty, there were also music, dance and opera performances at the lantern market in the Tang Dynasty. Thousands of palace maids and folk girls Singing and dancing under the lights are called walking songs and step songs.
Ouyang Xiu (sheng Zhazi) said: On the Lantern Festival last year, the lights in the flower market were like books; the moon was on the willow branches, and people made appointments after dusk. Xin Qiji (The Sapphire Case) wrote: The public searched for it thousands of times, but when I looked back at dusk, I found that person in a dimly lit place. It describes the scene of the Lantern Festival Night. In the traditional opera, Chen San and Wu Niang met during the Lantern Festival and fell in love at first sight. Lechang Gongwen and Xu Deyan reunited on the Lantern Festival night. In "Spring Lantern Riddles", Yu Wenyan and Ying Niang made a reservation at the Lantern Festival. Affection. Therefore, the Lantern Festival is also China's "Valentine's Day".
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The origin and legend of Chinese Valentine’s Day
Qixi Festival is about begging for luck. This festival originated from During the Han Dynasty, Ge Hong's "Xijing Miscellaneous Notes" of the Eastern Jin Dynasty recorded that "the colorful girls of the Han Dynasty often pierced the seven-hole needle in the Kaijin Tower on July 7th, and everyone practiced it." This is what we see in ancient documents. The earliest record of begging for skill. In later poems of the Tang and Song Dynasties, women's begging for skill was also frequently mentioned. Wang Jianyou of the Tang Dynasty said in a poem that "the stars in the dim sky are adorned with pearls, and the palace ladies are busy begging for skill on the Chinese Valentine's Day". According to "The Legacy of Kaiyuan Tianbao", Emperor Taizong of the Tang Dynasty and his concubines had a night banquet in the Qing Palace every Chinese Valentine's Day, and the maids begged for tricks. This custom also endured among the people and continued from generation to generation.
During the Song and Yuan Dynasties, the Qixi Festival begging for skillful things was quite grand. There was also a market specializing in begging for skillful items in the capital, which was known as the Qiqiao Market. Song Luoye and Jin Yingzhi's "Drunkard's Talk" says: "On the Chinese Valentine's Day, people buy and sell begging items in front of Panlou. From July 1st, the carriages and horses choked, and three days before the Chinese Valentine's Day, the carriages and horses could not pass, and they were choked one after another. , no more can be found, and they disperse at night." Here, from the grand occasion of purchasing begging items in the Qiqiao Market, we can infer the lively scene of the Qixi Qiqiao Festival at that time. People start buying begging items since the first day of July. The market is bustling with traffic and people. As the Chinese Valentine's Day approaches, the market has become a sea of ??people, making it difficult for cars and horses to move. Looking at the customs, it seems to be no less beautiful. The most grand festival - the Spring Festival, shows that the Qiqiao Festival is one of the favorite festivals of the ancients.
About the legend of the Cowherd and the Weaver Girl
The Chinese Valentine's Day has always been connected with the legend of the Cowherd and the Weaver Girl. This is a very beautiful love story that has been passed down through the ages and has become one of the four major folk love legends in my country.
According to legend, a long time ago, there was a clever man in Niujiazhuang in the west of Nanyang City. A loyal young man, his parents died young, so he had to live with his elder brother and sister-in-law. His sister-in-law, Ma, was cruel and often abused him and forced him to do a lot of work. One autumn, his sister-in-law forced him to herd cattle and gave him nine cows, but He was told to wait until he had ten cows before he could go home. The Cowherd had no choice but to drive the cows out of the village.
The Cowherd drove the cows into the mountain alone. On the mountain with deep grass and dense forests, he sat under a tree and was sad. He didn’t know when he would be able to drive ten cows home. At this time, someone An old man with white beard and hair appeared in front of him and asked him why he was sad. After learning what happened to him, he smiled and said to him: "Don't be sad. There is an old cow that is sick in Funiu Mountain. Go and feed it well." After the old cow recovers, you can drive it home.
The Cowherd traveled a long way over the mountains and finally found the sick old cow. When he saw that the old cow was seriously ill, he went to get bundles of grass for the old cow and fed it for three days. When the old cow was full, he raised his head and told him: He was the great gray cow in the sky. After breaking the rules of heaven, he was demoted to heaven, broke his leg and could not move. His injury needed to be washed with the dew of flowers for a month to heal. The Cowherd was not afraid of hard work and took care of the old cow carefully for a month. During the day, he took care of the old cow. He picked flowers and collected dew to heal his wounds, and slept next to the old cow at night. After the old cow recovered, the cowherd happily drove ten cows home.
After returning home, his sister-in-law was still unhappy with him. Well, she tried to harm him several times, but the old cow tried to save him. Finally, the sister-in-law got angry and drove the Cowherd out of the house. The Cowherd only wanted the old cow to accompany him.
One day, the Weaver Girl in the sky came to him. He went down to earth to play with the fairies and bathed in the river. With the help of the old cow, Cowherd met Weaver Girl. The two fell in love with each other. Later, Weaver Girl secretly descended to earth and became the Cowherd's wife. The silkworms brought from the sky were distributed to everyone, and everyone was taught how to raise silkworms, spin silk, and weave shiny silk and satin.
After the Cowherd and the Weaver Girl got married, the man farmed and the Weaver Girl weaved, and they were deeply in love. They gave birth to two children, a boy and a girl, and the family lived happily. However, the good times did not last long, and the Emperor of Heaven soon learned of this. The Queen Mother came down to earth in person and forcibly took Zhinu back to heaven, and the loving couple was separated. p>
The Cowherd had no way to go to heaven, so the Old Niu told the Cowherd that after its death, its leather could be used to make shoes and he could go to heaven wearing them. The Cowherd followed the Old Niu's advice and put on the leather shoes. He took his children's shoes, and together they went up to the sky to chase the Weaver Girl. They were about to catch up. Little did they know that the Queen Mother took off the golden hairpin from her head and waved it, and a turbulent Milky Way appeared, and the Cowherd and the Weaver Girl were separated on both sides. , they could only cry relative to each other. Their loyal love moved the magpies. Thousands of magpies flew to build a magpie bridge for the Cowherd and the Weaver Girl to walk on the magpie bridge to meet each other. The Queen Mother had no choice but to allow the two to meet each other on July 7th every year. Meeting on the Magpie Bridge
Later, every seventh day of the seventh lunar month, when it is said that the Cowherd and the Weaver Girl met on the Magpie Bridge, the girls would come in front of the flowers and under the moon, look up at the stars, and look for the stars Altair and Vega on both sides of the Milky Way. , hoping to see their annual meeting, praying to God to be as clever as the Weaver Girl, and praying for a happy marriage, thus forming the Chinese Valentine's Day.
Later, the Chinese Valentine's Day was formed. Qixi Festival has become a day for young men and women to express their love for each other, and it has become China's Valentine's Day. Boys express their love by sending flowers, and girls express their loyalty by sending gifts or knitted jewelry to their boyfriends.