China's Valentine's Day
By Su Wei & Vivian Zhang
Picture by Zhu Lijun

七夕,原是古时女孩们的"乞巧节".只因一段天上人间,缠绵绯恻的爱情故事,被冠以"中国情人节"之美誉.今年的七夕悄然临近,当大家一窝蜂地选择在Valentine's Day享受二人世界,您不妨返璞归真,体味一番中国的情人节 - 七夕.

What is the best time to express your love to your sweetheart, on Valentine's Day or on Qixi, Chinese Double Seven Festival(the seventh day of the seventh lunar month)? Ask young friends around you, and most likely the answer would be the former, which is more popular and well known, and, very importantly, more likely to win over the pursued after heart.

Then what's wrong with our homemade Valentine's Day? After all, it enjoys a longer history than the western counterpart.

But, it seems that enjoying a long history is the only aspect in which the Double Seven Festival can outmatch the former.

As early as the Han Dynasty, girls began to celebrate Double Seven Festival in China. What's behind their celebration is their desire for the mastery of knitting, cooking and home making, each of which was a must to be a fair lady at that time. As a result, girls would make tables, light candles and present fruits in their courtyard in hope to be blessed to acquire these skills from the weaving girl. Later the festival was associated with a love story, but these activities survived.

However, modern times leave little space for these celebrations. Some young people even know nothing about Chinese Double Seven Festival. The preparations of tables and fruit offerings are really time-consuming, why bother? Besides, the idea of praying for knitting skill sounds utterly out-dated, let alone having any sense of romance. As a result, Chinese have switched to Valentine's roses and chocolate, which are more convenient and appealing to girls.

There is one more point we cannot afford to ignore: western festivals center around the personal relationship while the Chinese ones originate from the mortals' awe for the immortals. No doubt the former carry more temporal(世俗的) elements to attract ordinary people.

Old-fashioned celebration is not the only place where Double Seven Festival loses marks. To make things worse, few newspapers and magazines devote their pages to the festival, which in turn makes it less known and less popular.

To be or not to be, that is a question. Will this Double Seven Festival be ignored in modern society and die out together with many other cultural traditions? Fortunately more and more people have realized the problem and have begun to cherish them much more than a decade ago. Maybe what an unidentified teacher said in an online article can give us some hints: "The zeal for foreign festivals has overshadowed traditional Chinese celebrations. However, Chinese people should preserve their tradition in this era where world cultural diversity is protected."

As the cultures of the world keep on learning from each other and blending together, hopefully in the long run, Valentine's Day and Chinese Double Seven Festival will both exist, one way or another, and become a factor in China's new tradition.

 

 

Folklore about the festival



Qixi is China's Valentine's Day, also known as the "Double Seven Festival", and this year will fall on August 22. According to Chinese folklore, Zhinu (the weaving girl in heaven) who was the granddaughter of the Mother Lady Queen, fell in love with and married a young cowherd named Niulang, despite the rule prohibiting marriage between mortal and immortal. Zhinu was forced back to heaven, but Niulang pursued her with the help of a magic ox. The Mother Lady Queen lined out the Milky Way with her hairpin, separating the couple. Still they remained devoted and undeterred, and at last, on the 7th evening of the seventh lunar month, bevies(成群) of magpies bridged the Milky Way to bring Zhinu and Niulang back together. As such, the festival is also known as China's Valentine's Day. It is said that if you listen attentively under the stars on that evening, you may even overhear the couple's love chatting.

 

 

Anecdotes on the festival



This beautiful tale has its origins in the Han Dynasty (206 BC - 220 AD). The festival is also based on an annual astronomical phenomenon. Every year on the seventh day of the seventh lunar month, two particular stars are bright in the night sky and shine until the sun rises. One of the stars is thought to be the weaving girl and the other is thought to be the cowherd. People have a custom of begging the weaving girl to teach them needlework and weaving skills on the Double Seven Festival. As such, the festival is also called the "Begging for Skills Festival" or the "Daughters' Festival." Another custom of the festival is praying to the Milky Way for a good harvest.

 

 

Message Board

"The Story in Spring" symphony concert
-The 100th anniversary of the birthday of Deng Xiaoping
"春天的故事" 交响音乐会
- 纪念邓小平同志诞辰100周年
Performer: Xiamen Philharmonic Orchestra
演出单位:厦门爱乐乐团
Conductors: Zheng Xiaoying, Wang Junshi
指挥:郑小瑛,王钧时
Time:19:30, August 20, 2004
时间:2004年8月20日晚7:30分
Venue:Music Island Philharmonic Hall,Wan Shou Lu at 67 Wen Yuan Lu
地点:万寿路口-文园路67号音乐岛·爱乐厅
Repertoire:
演出曲目:
The Ode of "Red flag"
红旗颂
Yangge Dance
秧歌舞曲(选自舞剧<白毛女>)
The Story in Spring
春天的故事
Farandole
法朗多拉舞曲
Overture from drama musical "Egmont "
戏剧<埃格蒙特>序曲
Pomp and Circumstance
威风凛凛进行曲
Spanish Capriccio
西班牙随想曲
Crack a New World with a Sharp Axe
(from the Symphony Epic "Echo of Hakka Earth Buildings")
硕斧开天(选自交响诗篇<土楼回响>)
An American in Paris
一个美国人在巴黎

Music universal education concert for middle-school students
中学生音乐普及音乐会
Performer: Xiamen Philharmonic Orchestra
演出单位:厦门爱乐乐团
Time: 15:00-16:00, August 21
时间:8月21日15:00-16:00
Venue: Music Island Philharmonic Hall, Wan Shou Lu at 67 Wenyuan Lu
地点:音乐岛 - 爱乐厅(万寿路口 - 文园路67号原电力礼堂)ma musical "Egmont "