The most common custom in Chinese Valentine's Day is all kinds of begging activities carried out by women on the night of the seventh day of July.
Most of the ways of begging for cleverness are that girls try their best to make small items and put some melons and fruits on them. The ways of begging for cleverness in different regions are different and have their own interests.
The begging activities in Jinan, Huimin, Gaoqing and other places in Shandong Province are very simple, just displaying melons and fruits for begging. If there are spider webs on melons and fruits, it means begging skillfully. However, in Juancheng, Caoxian, Pingyuan and other places, the custom of eating clever rice and begging for cleverness is very interesting: seven good girls collect food and vegetables, jiaozi, and wrap a copper coin, a needle and a red date into three dumplings respectively. After begging for cleverness, they get together to eat dumplings. It is said that they are blessed with money, skillful with needles and early married with dates.
In some places, the activities of begging for cleverness festival are of the nature of competition, similar to the ancient custom of fighting cleverness. In modern times, it is customary to make clever bud soup by threading needles, steaming skillfully, branding skillfully fruits, and in some places. Generally, grains are soaked in water on the first day of July, and cut buds to make soup on Tanabata. Children in this area pay special attention to eating clever buds, and decorations made of dough sculpture, paper-cutting and colored embroidery are the evolution of the custom of fighting clever buds. The shepherd boy will pick wild flowers and hang them on the horns on Qixi Day, which is called "Happy Birthday to the Cow" (it is said that Qixi is the birthday of the Cow).
Zhucheng, Tengxian and Zouxian call the rain on Qixi "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 southwestern Shandong, and they all went to the sky to build a magpie bridge.
There are still similar customs of begging for cleverness in various parts of Zhejiang today. Such as Hangzhou, Ningbo, Wenzhou and other places, on this day, all kinds of small objects are made of flour, which are called "proper fruit" after frying in oil, and proper fruit, lotus, white lotus root and Hong Ling are displayed in the courtyard at night. The girl puts a needle on the moon to pray for the weaver girl to give her a clever skill, or catches a spider and puts it in a box. If the box is opened the next day, it is called clever.
In the rural areas of Shaoxing, there will be many young girls hiding under the flourishing pumpkin shed that night. If you can hear the whispers when the cowherd and the weaver girl meet in the dead of night, the girl to be married will get this eternal love in the future.
In order to express people's hope that the Cowherd and the Weaver Girl can live a happy family life every day, in Jinhua, Zhejiang, every family will kill a chicken on July 7, which means that the Cowherd and the Weaver Girl will meet this night, and if there is no cock to announce the dawn, they will never be separated.
In the west of Guangxi, it is said that on the morning of July 7th, the fairy would come down to the earth to take a bath, and drinking its bath water could ward off evil spirits, cure diseases and prolong life. This water is called "Double Seven Waters". When chickens crow on this day, people scramble to get water from the river, and then take it back and put it in a new urn for future use.
Guangzhou's Begging for Clevership Festival is unique. Before the festival comes, girls prepare colorful paper, medulla tetrapanacis, string and so on in advance, and weave them into all kinds of fancy gadgets. They also put the seeds and mung beans in a small box and soak them in water to germinate them. When the buds grow to more than two inches, they are used to worship the gods, which are called "worshipping the immortals" and "worshipping the gods". From the sixth night to the seventh night, for two nights in a row, the girls put on new clothes and jewelry. After everything is arranged, they burn incense and light candles and bow down to the stars, which is called "welcoming the fairy". From the third night to the fifth watch, they have to worship seven times in a row.
After worshipping the immortals, the girls hold colored threads in their hands and thread them through the pinholes. For example, those who can wear seven pinholes in one breath are called skillful hands, and those who can't wear seven pinholes are called skillful hands. After Tanabata, the girls gave each other small handicrafts and toys to show their friendship.
In Fujian and Chinese Valentine's Day, Weaver Girl should be allowed to appreciate and taste fruits and vegetables, so that she can bless the fruits and vegetables harvest in the coming year. The offerings include tea, wine, fresh fruit, five seeds (longan, red dates, hazelnuts, peanuts and melon seeds), flowers, pollen for women's cosmetics and a incense burner. Generally, after fasting and bathing, everyone takes turns to burn incense and worship at the altar and pray silently. Women not only beg for cleverness, but also beg for children, longevity, beauty and love. Then, while eating fruit, drinking tea and chatting, everyone plays the game of begging for cleverness. There are two kinds of begging for cleverness: one is "divination", that is, asking yourself whether you are clever or stupid with a divination tool; The other is clever match, that is, whoever goes through the needle quickly gets clever, and the slow one is called "losing clever". The "losing clever" should give small gifts prepared in advance to the skillful one.
In some areas, "Seven Sisters' Clubs" are also organized, and the "Seven Sisters' Clubs" in various areas gather in Zongxiang Guild Hall to lay down all kinds of bright incense tables, offering sacrifices to the cowherd and the weaver girl from a distance. All the "incense tables" are paper-pasted, and the tables are filled with flowers, fruits, rouge powder, paper-made small flowered clothes, shoes, daily necessities and embroidery, and so on. The "Seven Sisters' Clubs" in different regions will work hard on the incense table to see who makes it exquisitely. Today, this kind of activity has been forgotten, and only a few ancestral halls still set up incense tables on this festival to worship the cowherd and the weaver girl. The incense table is usually prepared on the seventh day of July, and in the evening, it begins to beg the Weaver Maid.
Proper fruit is the most famous festive food for the Qixi Festival. Proper fruit, also known as "Kiki Kiki Fruit", has many styles. The main materials are oil, flour, sugar and honey. "Dream of China in Tokyo" refers to it as "laughing at children" and "fruit eating patterns", while the patterns include holding incense and winning. During the Song Dynasty, proper fruit was already sold in the market. proper fruit's practice was: first, put the white sugar in a pot and melt it into syrup, then mix it with flour and sesame seeds, spread it on a table, cool it, cut it into long squares with a knife, and finally fold it into spindle-shaped proper fruit embryos, and fry it until golden. Handy women will also create various patterns related to the legend of Qixi.
In addition, there are many changes in the melons and fruits used in begging for cleverness: either the melons and fruits are carved into exotic flowers and birds, or the surface of the melon skin is embossed with patterns; This kind of melon is called "flower melon".
To this day, Tanabata is still a romantic traditional festival. However, many customs have weakened or disappeared, and only the legend of the Cowherd and the Weaver Girl, which symbolizes loyal love, has been circulated among the people.