What does Qiqiao Festival mean? What is Qiqiao Festival?

Chinese Valentine's Day, also known as Qiqiao Festival, originated in the Han Dynasty. In Xijing Miscellanies written by Ge Hong in the Eastern Jin Dynasty, it is recorded that "women in the Han Dynasty often wear seven-hole needles on the stone reliefs of the Han Dynasty to open their palaces, and everyone is in Xi Zhi". This is what we have seen most in ancient documents.

On the seventh day of the seventh lunar month, girls will come to the flowers and the moon, look up at the starry sky, look for Altair and Vega on both sides of the Milky Way, hope to see their annual meeting, beg God to be as ingenious as a weaver girl, and pray for a happy marriage, thus forming Chinese Valentine's Day.

what does it mean to beg for cleverness

As the name implies, begging for cleverness is the main content of begging for cleverness festival. There are roughly two kinds of begging activities, one is divination and the other is competition. Buqiao is a kind of witchcraft activity, that is, using divination to determine whether it is clever or not. At the same time, women pray for cleverness and predict their future destiny.

there are generally two methods of folk divination. The first method is "floating needle trying to be clever", which is also called floating needle trying to be clever, throwing clever needles and throwing flowers. The method is to put water in a container and leave it in the open air for a period of time. After the film is formed on the water surface, throw needles or fine grass on the film and see the pattern of the needle shadow at the bottom of the container to test the ingenuity. It is said that the needle shadow is cloud-shaped, or flower-shaped, or bird-like and shoes, scissors and other shapes, that is, it is a coincidence; The needle shadow is as thick as fading, or as thin as silk, or as straight as an axis, but it is not clever.

another method is cobweb begging. Take a spider, put it in a small box for the night, and see if and how many webs are made the next day to test your ingenuity. It's clever to have a lot of silk and a round one. Because being skillful or not is related to a girl's future destiny, whether it is the diviner himself or relatives and friends, it is often the case that those who are skillful congratulate each other and those who lose are sad to tears.

There is also a method of "planting seeds to beg for cleverness". On the night of Qixi, virgins use earthenware to grow grain buds for cows and women to beg for cleverness. Tie up the grain buds that grow to several inches with red and blue color harnesses as a symbol of blessing. It seems that "planting five lives" is actually a kind of witchcraft.

Match Qiao, also called Biqiao, means that women compete to see who is clever and handy. The most common way to compare cleverness is to ask for cleverness through needles, which is also called reaching for people with golden needles. This is the oldest method of begging for cleverness. Its method is to pierce the pinhole with silk thread under the Qixi moon. The first one to pass through is "getting clever" and the backward one is "losing clever".

In addition, there is an almost cruel test game in Biqiao, namely Duqiao.

This method of testing cleverness is not carried out in the normal state, but the girl is put into a coma and dreamy state first, and then tested. Methods that are not too clever are not common.

Qiqiao Festival food

Qiqiao Fruit

People call it "proper fruit". Use flour and enamel to make various shapes, mostly "S" shape, pay attention to some, and pinch them into the shape of flowers and birds (such as birds and cranes). Deep-fried in an oil pan until golden brown, and fished out (sprinkle sesame seeds when it is hot, collectively known as proper fruit. After cooling, it can be eaten or used for begging Yue Bai. Proper fruit is exquisitely made and lifelike, which is often a way for girls and women to compete with their hands. Therefore, proper fruit must be made by women themselves, and then developed into a commodity production. On the day of "Chinese Valentine's Day", there will be "proper fruit" in various food stores. Proper fruit is crispy, sweet but not greasy.

Qiqiao wine

Qiqiao wine is used to worship the Cowherd and the Weaver Girl. Begging and worshipping activities are held in the evening. That night, all the girls and daughters-in-law, rich or poor, wore new clothes. The rich family arranged a banquet in the high-rise flower pavilion to enjoy the double stars. At the end of the evening, the girls and daughters-in-law put incense candles in the courtyard, decorated fruits, fragrant wine, proper fruit and other foods, burned incense and held candles, prayed to the sky, and begged the ingenious weaver girl to give her wisdom and wisdom. Therefore, when praying and bowing down, she looked very pious and focused: "How many female companions worship the vestibule, Yan said that the Milky Way is driving a magpie, and proper fruit piled up a plate and was full of belly, begging for clever analysis of the binary star every year." This poem and song of the Qing Dynasty is a true portrayal of begging for cleverness at that time. After bowing down, the girl and daughter-in-law will engage in clever activities. The clever method is generally to thread a needle under the moon to see who wears it quickly. The girls thread a needle at the moon with seven colored threads and seven embroidered needles. Whoever wears it quickly and accurately is the most clever. In some places, it's better than girls' hand-made. Girls put tables at their doorways, and put on all kinds of wonderful things that they have carefully made, such as embroidered skirts, pendants, quilts, pillows, handkerchiefs and sachets, which are everywhere for people to watch and comment on, and which girl's needlework skills are skillful. Interestingly, Biqiao is often a blind date for young men and women. When the young man secretly decided which girl was handy, he informed his parents and asked the matchmaker to propose marriage to the woman's house. Therefore, the old Biqiao activity is indeed a crucial event for girls.

Give candied fruit

Chinese Valentine's Day girls give each other candied fruit made by themselves. As early as a few months ago, in the spring and summer, the girls bought fresh fruits, made them with honey, and waited for Chinese Valentine's Day to present them to each other. Common ones are white sugar bayberry, candied green plum, apricot slices, candied dates and so on.

Giving candied fruit to each other is also one of the clever contents, depending on whose girl's skill is high, the candied fruit produced is delicious and beautiful. Secondly, most of the candied fruit is sweet, which means sweetness. Therefore, giving candied fruit to each other also has the meaning of wishing each other. In the old tea and candy shops, seasonal candied fruit was also introduced on this day, and the candied fruit was given a new name with the story of the Cowherd and the Weaver Girl Queqiao Fairy to attract business.