Chinese Valentine's Day, considered as the most romantic traditional festival in China, falls on the seventh day of the seventh lunar month every year, and there are customs such as Yue Bai praying for blessings, worshipping the weaver girl, eating proper fruit and begging for marriage. So what folk activities were there in ancient Chinese Valentine's Day? Let me answer your questions.

What folk activities were there in ancient Chinese Valentine's Day?

Begging for Qiao Festival

Throughout the Qixi folk activities, they are inextricably linked with the two major themes of Qixi folk customs: "Begging for Qiao" and "Marriage". It can be said that almost all Qixi folk customs developed from these two themes. At the same time, because these two themes are closely related to women, the main body of the folk custom commemoration of Qixi is young women, so Qixi is called "Daughter's Day" or Women's Day in traditional festivals in China. In the Qing Dynasty, the book "Moon Man Qing You Tu" depicts the aristocratic life of a good family for 12 months a year. One of them, called "Tong Yin Qi Qiao", is a description of the custom of Qixi in Beijing. The whole painting shows in detail the scene of "begging for cleverness" of the ladies in Beijing on the seventh day of July: on the night of Qixi, women put water in bowls in the courtyard, and then scattered a bunch of needles in them, and people scrambled to watch the patterns arranged in the water. It is said that the better the shape of the patterns, the more dexterous the hands of the needle users. This is the popular "throwing a needle for cleverness" in Chinese Valentine's Day in the Qing Dynasty, also called "throwing a clever needle". The activity of "begging for cleverness" related to needle and thread occupies the most important position. There are mainly "spider silk", "needle-piercing", "needle-throwing" and "blue night fighting".

Spider Begging for Cleverness

The Story of Jingchu's Age: "July 7th is the night of the gathering of Petunia and Weaver Maid. It's evening, and other women tie knots, wear seven-hole needles, or have a few feasts with wine and preserved fruits in court to beg for cleverness. Youxi subnet is on the melon. I think it should be. " Xizi refers to a small spider. The Chinese Valentine's Day Song written by Liu Yanshi in Tang Dynasty: "The blue sky dew is wet again, and the flowers beg for spider silk." Du Fu also wrote this custom in the poem "Petunia Weaver Girl": "Spider silk is a small person, and it is twisted in melons and fruits." In the Song Dynasty, "Dream of Tokyo": "Women look at the moon and thread needles, or put small spiders in the scorpion, and look at it the next day. If the net is round and straight, it is called clever."

needlework

Zhou Chu's "Records of Local Customs" says: "On July 7th, the night was swept in the courtyard, and several banquets were held, with preserved wine and fruit, and fragrant powder was scattered at the banquet to worship the river drum (that is, the morning glory) and the weaver girl." Zu Yong, a poet in the Tang Dynasty, said in the poem "Seeking Cleverness on Qixi": "It is even more important for a girl to seek a heavenly daughter. The jade court opened a powder banquet, and Luo sleeve held a gold plate. It is easy to thread a needle to the moon, but difficult to thread it in the wind. I don't know who is clever, but I will try to look at it tomorrow. " It is clever to wear a seven-hole needle or a nine-hole needle and use a colored thread to pass through it continuously. "Drunken Weng Tan Lu": "In fact, this needle can't be used, and the needle is too big." In order to express people's wish that the Cowherd and the Weaver Girl can live a happy family life every day, every family in Jinhua, Zhejiang Province will kill a chicken on July 7, which means that the Cowherd and the Weaver Girl will meet on this night. If there is no cock to announce the dawn, they will never be separated.

Wuzi

"Worship the Weaver Girl" on Tanabata is an important event for young girls and young women in ancient times. Sacrifice offerings include tea, wine, fresh fruit, etc., and Wuzi (longan, red dates, hazelnuts, peanuts and melon seeds) is even more indispensable. After burning incense and praying silently, these offerings become their midnight snack food.

flower melon

A skillful woman can also sculpt various patterns related to the Qixi legend. In addition, the melons and fruits used for begging for cleverness can also be varied. Or carve melons and fruits into exotic flowers and birds, or emboss patterns on the surface of melon skin, which is called "flower melon".

Jiangmi Tiao

Old Nanjing people also have a unique custom of celebrating Tanabata: eating Jiangmi Tiao. Jiang Mi Tiao is a snack of Han nationality, which is made by steaming glutinous rice flour with bean flour in a stew pot, beating it with a stick in a stone mortar, drying it in the sun and frying it in oil, and finally dipping it in plum blossom, pine flower, sesame seed and bean paste. Chinese Valentine's Day's origin time

Tanabata originated in the Han Dynasty. Ge Hong's Miscellaneous Notes on Xijing in the Eastern Jin Dynasty recorded that "women in the Han Dynasty often put a seven-hole needle on the Kaijinlou on July 7th, and everyone was in Xi Zhi", which is the earliest record of begging for skill that we have seen in ancient literature.

Qixi originated from people's worship of nature. According to historical documents, at least three or four thousand years ago, with people's understanding of astronomy and the emergence of textile technology, there were records about Altair Vega. People's worship of stars is far more than Altair and Vega. They think that there are seven stars representing directions in the east, west, north and south, which are collectively called Twenty-eight Nights, of which the Big Dipper is the brightest and can be used to tell the direction at night. The first star of the Big Dipper is called Kuixing, also known as the champion. Later, with the imperial examination system, the champion in the middle school was called "Dakui Tianxia Scholar", and the scholars called Tanabata "Kuixing Festival", also known as "Book-drying Festival", keeping the trace that the earliest Tanabata originated from the worship of stars.

"Qixi" also comes from ancient people's worship of time. "Seven" is homophonic with "period", and both the month and the day are "seven", which gives people a sense of time. In ancient China, the sun and the moon were combined with the five planets of water, fire, wood, gold and earth to be called "Seven Obsidian". Seven numbers are staged in time among the people, and the calculation of time often ends with "July 7th". The current "week" is calculated by "seven obsidians", which is still reserved in Japanese. "Seven" is homophonic with "auspicious", and "July 7th" has the meaning of double auspicious, which is an auspicious day. In Taiwan Province, July is called "Joy brings good luck" month. Because the shape of the happy character in cursive script is like "seventy-seven", the 77-year-old is also called "Happy Birthday". The meaning of Tanabata

1. Tanabata culture praises the faithful concept of marriage and love, and embodies people's yearning and pursuit of ideal love. It inherits and carries forward the fine traditional virtues of the Chinese nation, and embodies a strong sense of responsibility, which is different from the more romantic concept of love in western culture.

2. Begging for cleverness and praying for blessings in Qixi culture embodies the spirit of the Chinese nation's diligence and wisdom, self-improvement, courage to create, and constant pursuit of a happier and better life.

What articles are there about folk activities in ancient Chinese Valentine's Day:

★ Introduction to the origin of customs in Chinese Valentine's Day

★ What are the origins and customs of Chinese Valentine's Day

★ What are the customs of Chinese Valentine's Day's festivals

★ What are the customs of Chinese Valentine's Day

★ What are the customs of Story of Yanxi Palace, Chinese Valentine's Day

★ What are the customs of Chinese Valentine's Day? Nickname

★ Introduction to Qixi Valentine's Day

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