1. The Chinese celebrate a variety of festivals each year, including ones that have
its origins in a simple fairytale. In China, Valentine Day is celebrated twice a
year. The Chinese Valentine Day, known popularly as the Qi Xi Festival
(translated into Night of Sevens) is a celebration in which Chinese girls
traditionally demonstrate their domestic skills, hoping to find a good husband.
>
Falling on the seventh day of the seventh lunar month of the Chinese calendar,
the Qi Xi Festival is also known as the Magpie Festival. As the stars Altaire
and Vega are seen high in the sky in the late summer, this festival is held
during this time of the year to honour an ancient Chinese fairytale. In the most
popular variation of the story, Zhinu, the daughter of the Goddess, escapes
heaven to look for some fun because she finds Heaven too boring. On Earth, she
meets Niulang, a young cowherd. They soon fall in love, get married and have two
children. The Goddess finds out about her daughter marriage to a mortal and
demands that she return to Heaven and take on her task of weaving colourful
clouds. Niulang, upset about his wife disappearance, comes across an ox who
tells him if that if he kills it and wears his hide, he will be able to go to
Heaven along with his two children, which Niulang does. The Goddess, in anger,
scratches a river, forming the Milky Way between Altair and Vega, to separate
Zhinu and Niulang and the two are forced to live on either side of the river.
However, once a year, a flock of magpies who take pity on them form a bridge on
the seventh night of the seventh moon so that they can spend one night together.
Traditional celebrations included young Chinese girls pleading with the eaver
Girl?to give them excellent working hands and needlecraft skills, thus giving
the festival another name, The Festival to Plead for Skills. Various customs
were practiced that eventually revealed if the devotees had been blessed by the
Weaver Girl. Modern celebrations are similar to the normal Valentine Day
celebrations and young couples give each other presents and flowers and go out
on romantic dates. Families have get-togethers and some villages organize
community events, such as match-making events.
Tourists who wish to witness this fun-filled festival will find comfortable
accommodation in any Beijing Hotel .For those who wish to be a part of the
celebration, any five star hotel Beijing has to offer will act as a romantic
backdrop for celebrating this festival. The Grand Millennium Hotel Beijing is an
excellent choice for tourists who wish to be a part of the festival and for
couples who wants to celebrate in luxury and style.
FROM: http://www.china-companion.com/