4 The Qixi Festival

In the Chinese myths, the Queen Mother of the West (also known as Wangmu Niangniang), who was the daughter of the Heavenly King, had a granddaughter called the Sister Seventh (also known as Qijie) . She was clever, and her greatest skill was weaving, thus she had a nickname called the Weaving Maid (also known as Zhinü). One day, she went down to the human world to enjoy herself, where she came across an ordinary man called the Cowherd (also known as Niulang). The two of them loved each other at first sight, and they got married and lived together happily.

That was until the news reached the Heavenly King. After he learned what had happened, he was outraged. On the 7th day of the 7th month, he ordered the army in the Heaven to go and bring the Weaving Maid back. The soldiers did so and escorted her back to Heaven. However the Cowherd did not want to let go so easily, so he tried all his might to follow the soldiers from Heaven. He was getting closer and closer, until suddenly the Queen Mother of the West appeared, with a hairpin in her hand. She waved her arm and drew a Heavenly River with great roaming waves with the hairpin, separating the Cowherd from the Weaving Maid and the soldiers. As a result, the two lovers could only see each other from the two sides of the river.

Days went by, the Cowherd and the Weaving Maid still felt deeply in love with each other, even though they were separated physically by the Heavenly River. Gradually, the Queen Mother of the West was touched by the pair's persistence in love, and she decided to allow them to meet each other once a year, on the 7th day of the 7th month of each year. On that night every year, magpies would gather at the Heavenly River. They would organise themselves in rows to form a bridge for the two lovers, so that they could reach each other.

People were deeply touched by this love story. Therefore on that day each year, they worship the Weaving Maid, and that was the origin of the Qixi (meaning “7th night” if translated directly) Festival. On this day, girls will pray to her and make wishes --every girl wanted to be as skilful in weaving as the Weaving Maid.On the night of Qixi, there used to be a race, where girls would weave under the moonlight; the quicker they could weave, the higher chance they had of becoming a very skilful weaver.

Apart from the Weaving Maid's exceptional weaving skills, the Cowherd and the Weaving Maid's belief in love and their bravery in making the seemingly impossible to become possible has been passed on for generations. On that night, in addition to praying for the Weaving Maid to pass them her weaving skills, girls will also pray to be married to their lovers and enjoy a happy marriage. Obviously, such a love story has touched a lot of people, especially those who write well. One of the most famous pieces was written by Qin Guan (1049 - 1100) in the Northern Song Dynasty (960- 1127), which mainly talked about the sadness felt by the two as they were separated from each other. At the end of that piece, there is a very famous line -- If the love between a couple is longlasting, any obstacles will fall away -- for as the author pointed out, true love can defeat the boundaries of time and space.

The story of the Cowherd and the Weaving Maid is almost as romantic as it gets, but this romance actually reflected the restrictions on freedom of love back in the old days, a traditional society where there were all sorts of rules and regulations established by the elderly in limiting the freedom and possibilities of free love.