There is a close relationship between Chinese Valentine's Day customs and women. In ancient times, Tanabata activities were centered on young women, so it was also called "Daughter's Day" or "Girls' Day".
Legend has it that this day is the day when the cowherd and the weaver girl meet at the Magpie Bridge. On the night of Tanabata, the Magpie Bridge enters the screen, begging for a long-lasting love, which is the custom of ancient Tanabata. While praying for a happy marriage, the girls also hope that they can be as ingenious as the weaver girl ~
According to legend, ancient girls would wear new clothes and beg for wisdom from Vega in the courtyard from the first day of the seventh lunar month to the night of the seventh lunar month. This is mainly because the "Seven Sisters", also known as the Seven Fairies, are experts in weaving in the Heavenly Palace. When Chinese Valentine's Day arrived, ancient women would beg her to teach them ingenious skills.
In fact, it can also be called "fighting skill", because girls can thread a needle, steam steamed buns, cut paper, embroider flowers, etc., and then compare who has the best hand.
The saying that Chinese Valentine's Day is Valentine's Day was circulated later, mainly from the story of the Cowherd and the Weaver Girl. Because their love is not recognized by the Emperor of Heaven, they are only allowed to meet once a year, and this day is the seventh day of the seventh lunar month.
On the night of Tanabata, they crossed the bridge built by magpies and came to the middle of the bridge to talk about their thoughts. Later, Chinese Valentine's Day was integrated with Valentine's Day, and it has been spread to modern society.
Let's take a look at how ancient girls spent Tanabata.
Customs in Chinese Valentine's Day:
(A) needlework
On the Chinese Valentine's Day, women have to play games such as threading the needle on the moon and beg the Weaver for wisdom, which is called "begging for cleverness". Women holding five-color silk thread and nine-hole needles (or five-hole needles or seven-hole needles) arranged continuously thread the needle to the moon in the moonlight, and those who pass the thread quickly and completely are called "skillful".
(2) Spiders should be clever
This is also an earlier way of begging for cleverness, and its popularity is a little later than that of asking for cleverness with needles, which generally started in the Northern and Southern Dynasties. Put the spider in a box or cover it with a bowl, and judge whether it is clever to beg according to certain standards. If it is based on whether it is netting, it will be clever if it is netting; Some take the number of nets as the standard, and the denser the nets are, the more skillful they are; There are standards based on whether the network is organized, and being organized is skillful; There is also a standard based on whether the spider silk passes through the needle, and it is clever if the spider silk passes through the pinhole. After accounting for the test, all the skillful people were happy, and everyone congratulated her; Those who fail to get it right are often depressed, sighing and even sobbing.
(3) Needle-throwing and skillful testing
This is a variant of the custom of needlework on Tanabata, which originated from needlework and is different from needlework. It is a popular Chinese Valentine's Day custom in Ming and Qing Dynasties. On the afternoon of July 7th, I watched Sen throw a clever needle.
When women are exposed to the water, the water film looks unfamiliar, while the embroidery needle floats and looks at the shadow of the underwater needle. Those who have clouds, flowers, birds and animals, shoes and scissors, and eggplant shadows are called clever begging. Its shadow is as thick as a hammer, as thin as silk, and as straight as axis wax, which is a mistake. (Ming Liu Dong and Yu Yizheng's A Brief Introduction to the Scenery of the Imperial Capital, Volume 2)
(4) Worship the Weaver Girl
On Tanabata, we worship the Weaver Girl, burn incense in front of the case, and after the worship, everyone sits around the table, eating peanuts, melon seeds and renting acres while facing the Weaver Girl constellation and meditating on their own thoughts.
If girls want to be beautiful or marry a husband, and young women want to have a baby early, they can pray silently to Vega and play until midnight.