The origin and custom of Valentine's Day in China, and Valentine's Day in China is our traditional festival, also known as Valentine's Day. In ancient times, Valentine's Day in China was an exclusive festival for women. In Qixi folk customs, some have gradually disappeared, while others have been continued by people. Welcome to read the history and customs of Valentine's Day in China.

The Origin and Customs of Valentine's Day in China 1

The origin and custom of Valentine's Day in China.

In ancient China, on the night of the seventh day of the seventh lunar month, the climate was warm and the plants were fragrant. This is commonly known as Chinese Valentine's Day, also known as Beggar's Day, or Daughter's Day. It is the most romantic and beautiful festival among the traditional festivals in China, and it is also the most important day for girls in the past. I shared the history and customs of Valentine's Day in China for you. Welcome to learn from them!

The Origin of Valentine's Day in China

The most common custom of Valentine's Day in China is all kinds of begging activities carried out by women on the evening of July 7th.

Most girls try their best to make small things and put some melons and fruits on them. Different regions have different ways to please others, and each has its own interests.

Begging activities in Jinan, Huimin, Gaoqing and other places in Shandong are very simple, just showing melons and fruits for begging. If there are cobwebs on melons and fruits, begging is very skillful. However, in Juancheng, Cao Xian, Pingyuan and other places, the custom of eating clever rice and begging for cleverness is very interesting: seven good girls collect food and vegetables, wrap jiaozi, and wrap a copper coin, a needle and a red date into three jiaozi respectively. After begging for wisdom, they got together to eat jiaozi. It is said that they were rich, good at sewing and got married early.

In some places, the Begging for Clevership Festival is of a competitive nature, similar to the ancient custom of fighting wisdom. Modern people are used to piercing needles, steaming and branding fruits skillfully, and some places also make clever bud soup. Generally, a handful of grains are soaked in water at the beginning of July, and the buds are cut to make soup on Tanabata. Children in this area pay special attention to eating smart buds, and decorations made of dough sculpture, paper-cutting and colored embroidery are the evolution of the custom of fighting smart buds. The shepherd boy will pick wild flowers and hang them on the horns on Tanabata, which is called "Happy Birthday to the Cow" (it is said that Tanabata is the birthday of the Cow).

Zhucheng, tengxian and Zouxian call the rain on Tanabata "acacia rain" or "acacia tears" because it is caused by the meeting of cowherd and weaver girl. Legend has it that there are very few magpies in Jiaodong and Southwest Shandong, and they have all gone to build a magpie bridge.

The custom of Valentine's Day in China

Spiders should be smart.

This is also an early way of seeking cleverness, and its popularity is a little later than that of seeking cleverness with needles, which generally began in the Southern and Northern Dynasties.

The Five Dynasties Wang Renyu's "Kaiyuan Tianbao Legacy" said: "On July 7, we all caught spiders in small boxes until dawn; Think of cobwebs as sparse and dense. Secret people have many clever words, while rare people have few clever words. Folk also works. " The Dream of Tokyo written by Meng Yuanlao in the Song Dynasty said that on the seventh day of July, "a spider was put in the zygote, and the next day, if the net was round, it would be clever."

"Song Zhou Mi said in" The Year of Ganchun ";" How long does it take to store spiders in the house, waiting for the density of the net? Tomita Rucheng's "Joy of the Tide" said that on Tanabata, "It is very clever to put spiders in a small box and observe the density of their webs the next morning. "It can be seen that the methods of testing ingenuity in past dynasties are different. The existence of the visual network in the Southern and Northern Dynasties, the thinness of the visual network in the Tang Dynasty, and the roundness of the visual network in the Song Dynasty, followed the customs of the Tang Dynasty in later generations.

Needle throwing and skill test

This is a variation of the custom of needlework on Qixi, which originated from needlework and is different from needlework. This is a popular Valentine's Day custom in China during the Ming and Qing Dynasties. Throw a clever needle at noon on July 7. When a woman comes into contact with water, the water film looks strange, and the embroidery needle floats and looks at the shadow of the underwater needle. There are clouds, flowers, birds and animals, shoes, scissors and eggplant shadows, which are called clever begging; Its shadow is as thick as a hammer, as thin as silk and as straight as axis wax, which is wrong.

Seed search

In the old custom, a few days before Tanabata, first spread a layer of soil on a small wooden board, sow the seeds of millet to make it bear green seedlings, and then put some small huts and flowers and trees on it to make it look like a small village where people live in heaven, called a "shell board", or soak mung beans, adzuki beans and wheat in a magnetic bowl and tie it with red and blue silk threads. All parts of the south are also called "bubble cleverness", and the sprouted bean sprouts are called smart buds. Even the needles are replaced by smart buds and thrown on the water to beg for cleverness. Wax is also used to create various images, such as the characters in the story of the Cowherd and the Weaver Girl, or the shapes of animals such as vultures and mandarin ducks, which float on the water, which is called "floating on the water". There are also baby dolls made of wax, which women can buy home and float in the water and soil to show their good luck to their children, and they are called "metaplasia".

For Niu Qingsheng.

Children will pick wild flowers and hang them on horns on Qixi Day, which is also called "Happy Birthday to Cows". Because it is said that after the Queen Mother of the West separated the Cowherd from the Weaver Girl by Tianhe, the old cow asked the Cowherd to scrape off its skin and drive its cowhide to see the Weaver Girl. In order to commemorate the sacrifice spirit of the old cow, people have the custom of "celebrating the life of the cow".

The origin and custom of Valentine's Day in China 2 Tanabata: July 7th, which is called Tanabata, because sacrificial activities are held on the seventh day of July (in the evening, it was called "evening" in ancient times).

Double seven: The sun, the moon and the sun are all seven, so it is called seven. Xiangri: According to legend, the cowherd and the weaver girl meet on Tanabata, and the weaver girl should dress up, paint and even smell the fragrance all over the sky, hence the name.

Week: Cowherd and Weaver Girl have special status, and they can only meet once a year, so this day is called week.

Begging for Qiao Festival: Begging for Qiao custom named after "Seven Sisters's birthday". July 7th is Qi Mei's birthday, and "begging for cleverness" is one of the important customs of Qi Mei's birthday, so it is also called "begging for cleverness". According to folklore, Qimei is an expert in weaving girls in the sky. In the past, beautiful girls "begged" Qi Jie to teach her clever skills. In fact, the so-called "seeking cleverness" is just "fighting cleverness".

Women's Day: Valentine's Day in China is called Women's Day, also called Girls' Day and Girls' Day, because girls worship immortals and strive for cleverness. It is an exclusive festival for beautiful girls in traditional festivals in China. That night, the girls not only asked the Weaver girl for skillful hands, but also asked for marriage. In the past, marriage was a lifelong event that decided a girl's happiness. Therefore, spoony women in the world will pray for a happy marriage at the stars on Qixi night.

The custom of Valentine's Day in China:

1, sewing

There are various ways to please. I also played begging with my sister when I was a child. For example, I take a basin of water and put it in the sun during the day to get a layer of white skin, and bring it in to let girls stick needles in it to see who looks the best and who is the smart girl. If you don't set it, you will beg for "idiots", that is, clumsy girls, so girls pay great attention to this begging activity. Another is to thread a seven-hole needle with thread, which is difficult to thread. It depends on whether your fingers are dexterous or not and whether you often embroider, which requires that your eyes and hands can't tremble. And Kyubi no Youko needle, if you wear it, you are the most ingenious girl. There are various forms of seeking cleverness with bare needles.

2. Seed production

Some girls also pay special attention to begging skills. Is to use cardboard or wooden boards to make an inch thick soil, and plant mung beans and adzuki beans on the first day of July. Coincidence is the harmony between man and nature. You can not only thread a needle, but also do farm work, which is a necessity in life and a skill in life.

3. Cowherd and Weaver Girl

July is called "blue moon" and the night in July is called "blue night". The custom of this day is that when I was a child, the Cowherd and the Weaver Girl would listen to the whispers of the Cowherd and the Weaver Girl under the cucumber frame or the rattan frame. Everyone said they heard it. Why? Because the evening breeze blows gently, the sound of leaves is understood as their love words.

Boys seek literary talent, while girls seek cleverness.

There is a clever way, the rain is getting darker and darker, so I will catch spiders and put them in a small box, and see how the cobwebs are knotted every once in a while. Girls want to eat, boys want to eat, and now some people play. There is another kind of rain, when there are clouds, look at them and be smart. This is usually climbing the hillside to see what these clouds look like. If you look at the sky carefully, some clouds are like animals, some like plants, some like treasures, and some like decorations. Whoever sees something is smart. If you look at the dark sky, it will rain soon, which means that the weather is good and the harvest is in sight. It rains and collects water. Washing your face and taking a bath with this water can improve your eyesight and refresh your mind.

5. Worship Weaver Girl

"Worship the Weaver Girl" is purely a matter for girls and young women. Most of them make an appointment with five or six people, at most a dozen people, with friends or neighbors in advance to hold it together. The ceremony is to lay a table in the moonlight, and put tea, wine, fruit, five sons (longan, red dates, hazelnuts, peanuts, melon seeds) and other sacrifices on the table. There are also some flowers, tied with red paper, inserted in the bottle, with a small incense burner in front. Then, the young women and girls who make an appointment to attend the worship of the Weaver Maid will fast for one day, take a bath and come to their host's house on time. After burning incense in front of the case, everyone will sit around the table and meditate on their thoughts while eating peanuts and melon seeds. If a girl wants to be beautiful or marry a husband, and a young woman wants to have a baby early, she can silently pray to the Weaver Girl. Play until midnight.