Bestowing Wisdom and Ingenuity:
The Qixi Festival

English text by Megan Wang

Vivacious and intriguing, stars twinkle brightly against the inky summer sky. Among them, two of the brightest are Altair and Vega. They are light-years apart, separated by the visible band of the Milky Way—much like two star-crossed lovers who are forced into different destinies. In ancient China, this phenomenon was personified to be a “tragic romance,” and passed down as a popular folk tale known as the Cowherd and Weaver Maiden. The story is associated with the so-called Chinese Valentine’s Day, also known as the Qixi Festival, which is celebrated on the seventh day of the seventh lunar month. 

According to Chinese folklore, there was once a beautiful fairy named the Weaver Maiden (Vega), who fell in love and later married a mortal man called the Cowherd (Altair). Heaven, however, did not allow such intermarriage, and the two were soon banished to opposite sides of the sky, separated by the turbulent Heaven River—aka the Milky Way. Empathetic of the lovers, a flock of magpies would gather and form a “bridge” every year on the seventh night of the seventh lunar month, so that the Maiden and Cowherd could briefly reunite. This love story of a faithful but parted couple has come to move generation after generation of Chinese valentines. 

As this narrative became deeply ingrained in the culture of the Qixi Festival, it became known  mostly for its romantic aspect. However, this is merely an incomplete representation. The Qixi Festival encompasses many other layers of cultural complexity, including goodness and numerous virtues, that lie beneath the romantic surface.

 

 

Bustling Scenery

The festival’s roots date back to as early as the Eastern Zhou Dynasty (771 BC–256 BC). In a Song Dynasty memoir, The Eastern Capital: A Dream of Splendor (1187), author Meng reminisces about the bustling scenes of Qixi. Days before the festival, the streets are filled with chatter and laughter. “From beautiful maidens in glamorous flowing gowns, to the hustling of horses and carriages, the streets were overtaken by the excited crowd.”  

On the day of Qixi, the towns were filled with peddlers along the roadside selling moheles—small clay statues of a little boy holding a lotus. These were often considered as mascots for the festival. Children and adults alike adored them for their exquisite carvings and cute faces, as well as for the tiny colorful clothes they wore. The more affluent could purchase moheles delicately carved from wood and adorned with gold beads. Since the price range varied, common and noble families alike could treasure at least one mohele statue for the festivity and good blessings. 

On coming home, unmarried young girls would excitedly enshrine the statues in preparation for the worshiping of the Weaver Maiden, as the fairy was well-known for her ingenuity. Prior to praying, the girls gathered and set up a table with tea, wine, fruits, hazelnuts, peanuts, melon seeds, and other desserts as tributes to the fairy. As night arrived, the maidens prayed to Heaven for the endowment of wisdom and a pair of deft hands.

 

 

 

Ingenuity Bestowed 

In the past, before people’s thoughts about Qixi were overwhelmingly occupied by its romantic aspects, it was in fact considered a festival for maidens. Unmarried girls not only prayed to the Weaver Maiden but also engaged in activities such as the many “gifted-hands prediction” games and “handy-girl competitions.”

One of the most popular traditions was the Needle-Threading Competition, where participating girls would attempt to thread a seven-hole needle. Under the soft moonlight, with an occasional breeze fluttering by, this task could be incredibly challenging. The maiden who completed the task in the least amount of time was said to have been blessed by the Weaver Maiden. 

The Sewing-Needle Predictions were also well-known. As recorded in volume 2 of Survey of Scenery and Monuments in the Imperial Capital (1635), during the Ming Dynasty, maidens would gently set a needle on the surface of a shallow basin of water under the midday sun. As the needle floated, it would cast a shadow at the bottom of the basin. After a while, “some shadows appeared as clouds, flowers, or even birds; if the shadow shaped into a shoe or a pair of scissors, or other interesting shapes, the maiden had been bestowed ingenuity.” However, if the basin’s bottom showed a shadow that was too straight, slim, or thick, it was concluded that the maiden had not yet been blessed. Seemingly lighthearted, the games were in fact taken very seriously by young girls, as many would sob over unfortunate results. 

In traditional Chinese culture, outstanding needlework skills were a highly praised quality among maidens, as it suggested the progress a girl made in cultivating her inner beauty. Moreover, through honing this skill, they could develop great patience and a virtuous heart. Both were essential to being successful in marriage, which back then, was arguably the most important matter in a girl’s life. 

Times are different now, and marrying well is perhaps no longer a woman’s most significant goal in life. However, what remains timeless is the importance of cultivating oneself before embarking on a romantic journey. 

 

 

 

Romantic Notions

Indisputably, the romantic aspect of Qixi is overly emphasized. According to the Classic of Poetry, people’s observation of the starry sky sparked enormous imagination dating all the way back to the Western Zhou Dynasty (1047 BC–772 BC). Through lighthearted metaphors, people mocked that the stars of the Cowherd (Altair) and Weaver Maiden (Vega) were not actually able to herd cows or weave. This suggests that literary works associated with them had yet to become focused on the story’s romantic elements. 

Prior to the Han Dynasty (202 BC–AD 220), literary works began to further personify the two stars, thereby giving rise to a tragic romance. Numerous famous pieces, such as the tenth poem in Nineteen Old Poems, told a stirring account of how the two lovers longed to see each other. For thousands of years, poets and writers would continue to nourish this romantic sentiment in their works, as the Cowherd and Weaver Maiden reference became almost the default for scenes of languishing lovers. However moving the tales may be, though, perhaps the only ones with such impassioned sentiments were the literati themselves. 

Although the Qixi Festival is now often referred to as the Chinese version of Valentine’s Day, the two holidays are not quite the same. In fact, people in the past often avoided holding marriage ceremonies on this day, so as to avoid meeting the same tragic fate as the story’s characters. 

Thus, Qixi is not necessarily about celebrating romantic couples. Its real essence, perhaps, lies in the traditional values of ingenuity and constant self-improvement. Ultimately, we should all strive to become better for the ones we love.