What are the origins and customs of the Qixi Festival? A complete guide
The seventh day of the seventh lunar month is the Qixi Festival, also known as the Qiqiao Festival, Qiqiao Festival, Shuangqi, Xiangri, Xingqi, Lanye, Daughter's Festival, or Qijie's Birthday, among other names.
As early as the era of the Classic of Poetry, people already had some understanding of the celestial phenomena of the Cowherd and the Weaver Girl.
Origins of Qixi
This festival originated in the Han Dynasty. Ge Hong of the Eastern Jin Dynasty wrote in Miscellaneous Records of the Western Capital: "Han palace women often threaded seven-hole needles on the seventh day of the seventh month at the Kaijin Tower, and everyone customarily did this." This is the earliest record of qiqiao (pleading for skills) found in ancient documents.
Tang
Song
Poetry
Ci
In the poetry of the Tang and Song dynasties, women's qiqiao is also repeatedly mentioned. The Tang Dynasty poet Wang Jian wrote: "The stars fade and glimmer like pearls of light; on Qixi, palace maids are busy pleading for skills."
Emperor
King
Influence
Influence
According to Records of the Kaiyuan and Tianbao Eras: Emperor Taizong of Tang and his consorts held night banquets in the Qing Palace every Qixi, and the palace maids each practiced qiqiao. This custom also endured among the people and was passed down from generation to generation.
Number
Word
Symbolic
Meaning
"Seven" is also the number of beads in each column of an abacus, romantic yet rigorous, giving people a mysterious sense of beauty. "Seven" is homophonous with "wife," so Qixi to a large extent became a festival related to women.
Customs and Traditions
Threading needles to plead for skills is the earliest form of qiqiao, beginning in the Han Dynasty and spreading to later generations. Miscellaneous Records of the Western Capital says: "Han palace women often threaded seven-hole needles on the seventh day of the seventh month at the Kaijin Tower, and everyone customarily did this.
Throw
Needle
Test
Skill
This is a variant of the Qixi custom of threading needles to plead for skills. It originated from needle-threading but differs from it, and was a popular Qixi festival custom in the Ming and Qing dynasties. Liu Tong and Yu Yizheng of the Ming Dynasty wrote in A Brief Account of the Scenery of the Capital: "At noon on the seventh day of the seventh month, throw a qiqiao needle."
Orchid
Night
Contest
Skills
It is said to have originated from a game in the Han Dynasty palace. Every year on the seventh day of the seventh month, the Han palace first held it beside the Baizi Pond. After playing Khotan music, they used five-colored silk threads to tie each other up, calling it 'mutual affection.'
Afterward, the palace maids and beauties went together to the Bijin Tower, where everyone learned to thread seven qiqiao needles to plead for skills. There was a palace maid named Xu Jieyu who could carve raw water chestnuts and lotus roots into all kinds of exotic flowers and rare birds to present to the emperor. The emperor would casually place these little trinkets on the corners of tables in the palace at night and let the palace maids search for them in the dark. This game was called douqiao (contesting skills).
For
Ox
Celebrate
Birthday
On Qixi, children would pick wildflowers and hang them on ox horns, also called "celebrating the ox's birthday." Legend has it that after the Queen Mother of the West used the Milky Way to separate the Cowherd and the Weaver Girl, the old ox, so that the Cowherd could cross the Milky Way to see the Weaver Girl, let the Cowherd peel off its hide and ride on its ox hide to go see the Weaver Girl. To commemorate the old ox's spirit of sacrifice, the custom of "celebrating the ox's birthday" came into being.
Festival Influence
Ja
pan
Influence
Influence
Japan's "Qixi Festival" originated from China and continues the customs and habits of "qiqiao," but it has nothing to do with love. It has now become an important traditional folk festival. The Qixi Festival was originally the seventh day of the seventh lunar month, but Japan abolished the lunar calendar, so Japan's Qixi Festival is on July 7 of the solar calendar each year.
Ko
rea
Influence
Influence
The most representative custom of Qixi in Korea is to pray to the Weaver Girl star, hoping to have as skillful hands as the Weaver Girl and to weave better. On that morning, women place melons such as muskmelons and cucumbers on a table and bow their heads in prayer, so that women's weaving skills may become better and better.
Viet
nam
Influence
Influence
The offerings used in Vietnam for worshiping Qixi are mainly based on the customs of southern China, including: water caltrops, chess-piece cakes, coin cakes, peanuts, and so on, as well as two offerings closely related to the legend of the "Cowherd and Weaver Girl": "rice seedlings" and a "Qijie tray."