The origin of Chinese Valentine's Day is related to the story of the Cowherd and the Weaver Girl circulated among the people. Its earliest origin may be in the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, such as The Book of Songs, Dadong: "When you fall, the Weaver Girl makes seven waves all day long. Although it is seven, it is not a service chapter; If you look at the cow, you don't recognize the box. " There is also the Ming Dynasty Luo Qi's "Source of Things": "Chu Huaiwang first set Qixi." However, Tanabata at that time was a sacrifice to Altair and Vega, and there was no story behind it.
It was not until the Han Dynasty that its details were linked with the story of the Cowherd and the Weaver Girl, and it officially became a festival for women. For example, "Customs Pass" written by Ying Shao in the Eastern Han Dynasty reads: "The weaver girl should cross the river on Tanabata, making magpies overseas Chinese." Another example is "Miscellanies of Xijing", which says: "Women of Han Dynasty often wear seven-hole needles in the Kaijin Building on July 7th, and all of them are Xi Zhi."
The story of the Cowherd and the Weaver Girl:
Legend has it that a long time ago, there was a clever and honest young man in Niujiazhuang, west of Nanyang City. His parents died early, so he had to live with his brother and sister-in-law. His sister-in-law Ma Shi was vicious and often abused him, forcing 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, so the Cowherd had no choice but to drive them out of the village.
Cowherd drove the cows into the mountain alone. On the mountain with deep grass and dense forests, he sat under the tree and was sad. He didn't know when he could drive ten cows home. At this time, an old man with white hair and beard appeared in front of him and asked him why he was sad. When he learned what had happened to him, he smiled and said to him, "Don't be sad. There is a sick old cow in Funiu Mountain. You go and feed it well. When the old cow is well, you can wait for it."
Cowherd walked a long way over mountains and mountains, and finally found the sick old cow. Seeing that the old cow was seriously ill, he went to fetch bundles of grass for the old cow. After feeding it for three days in a row, the old cow looked up and told him that he was a big fairy in the sky, but he was sent down to heaven because he broke his leg and could not move. His injury needs to be washed with dew of flowers for a month. Cowherd took care of old Niu Yi carefully for a month, collecting flowers for the old cow during the day and sleeping next to the old man at night. When the old cow recovered, Cowherd happily drove ten cows home.
After returning home, my sister-in-law still treated him badly. She harmed him several times and was rescued by the old cow. At last, my sister-in-law became angry and drove the cowherd out of the house, and the cowherd only wanted the old cow to accompany him.
One day, the weaver girl in the sky played games with the fairies and bathed in the river. With the help of the old cow, the cowherd got to know the weaver girl, and they had mutual affection. Later, the weaver girl secretly came to the world and became the wife of the cowherd. The Weaver Girl also distributed the wild silkworms brought from the sky to everyone, and taught everyone to raise silkworms, spin silks and weave bright silks and satins.
After the marriage of Cowherd and Weaver Girl, men plowed and women weaved, and they had a boy, a girl and two children, and the family lived happily. But the good times didn't last long, and it soon made the Emperor of Heaven know that the heavenly queen herself came down to earth and forcibly brought the Weaver Girl back to heaven, and the loving couple were separated.
There is no way for the cowherd to go to heaven, or the old cow told him that after his death, he could make shoes out of his skin and wear them to heaven. Cowherd did as the old cow said, put on shoes made of cowhide, and took his children with him. When he saw that he was about to catch up, I'm afraid the Queen Mother pulled out the golden hairpin on her head, and a choppy Tianhe appeared. Cowherd and Weaver were separated on both sides, and they could only cry relatively.
Their loyal love touched the magpies, and thousands of magpies flew in to build a magpie bridge, so that the Cowherd and the Weaver Girl could meet on the magpie bridge. The Queen Mother had no choice but to allow them to meet on July 7 every year.
Later, on the seventh day of the seventh lunar month, according to legend, when the Cowherd and the Weaver Girl meet at the Magpie Bridge, the girls will come to the flowers and the moon, look up at the starry sky, and look for the Cowherd and the Vega on both sides of the Milky Way, hoping to see their annual meeting, begging God to make themselves as ingenious as the Weaver Girl, and praying that they can have a happy marriage, thus forming Chinese Valentine's Day.