Qixi Festival

Qixi 七夕 — the “seventh evening” — falls on the seventh day of the seventh lunar month. It is the festival of lovers, often compared to Valentine’s Day, though the story is older and the date is lunar. It is not a public holiday.

The legend is that of the Cowherd and the Weaver Girl (Niulang and Zhinü). The Weaver Girl, a daughter of heaven, married a cowherd on earth; heaven separated them by the Milky Way and allowed them to meet once a year, on the seventh night of the seventh month, across a bridge of magpies. If it rains that night, some still say the rain is their tears.

Girls once prayed that night for skill at the needle; the festival was as much about craft as about couples. Today it is a day for gifts and restaurant bookings, in competition with the imported 14 February, and with the lunar date moving from year to year. The hub gives the next two dates; the story does not change.