Traditional Chinese Festival - Double Seventh Day is Approaching Quickly!

Double Seventh Day

The Qixi Festival, literally "Double Seventh Day", also known as the Magpie Festival, falls on the seventh day of the seventh lunar month of the Chinese calendar, thus its name. It is sometimes called the Chinese Valentine's Day since the late 1990s. Young girls traditionally demonstrate their domestic arts, especially melon carving, on this day and make wishes for a good husband.


This year, the festival falls on August 6. In the late summer, the stars Altair and Vega are high in the night sky, and the Chinese tell the following love story:

A young cowherd, Niulang, came across a beautiful girl, Zhinü (literally "the weaver girl"), the seventh daughter of the Goddess, who had just escaped from boring heaven to look for fun. The naughty princess soon fell in love with Niulang, and they married without the knowledge of the Goddess. They lived happily and had two children. However, the Goddess of Heaven found out that Zhinü, a fairy girl, had married a mere mortal. The Goddess was furious and ordered Zhinü to return to heaven. On Earth, Niulang was very upset that his wife had disappeared. Suddenly, his ox told him that if he killed it and put on its hide, he would be able to go up to Heaven to find his wife. So he killed the ox and carried his two beloved children off to Heaven to find Zhinü. The Goddess found out and was very angry. Taking out her hairpin, she scratched a wide river in the sky to separate the two lovers forever, thus forming the Milky Way between Altair and Vega.

Once a year all the magpies in the world would take pity on them and fly up to heaven to form a bridge, "the bridge of magpies", over the star Deneb in the Cygnus constellation so that the lovers can be together for a single night, on the seventh night of the seventh moon.

Does Niulang and Zhinü’s situation resemble that of you and your Chinese lady? They are separated by distance and so are you. Think again, you have something they did not have. Cherish what you have with your other half. Don’t take life for granted. Although there is physically a long distance between you and your lady, you can overcome this distance by bringing yourself closer to her – call her, chat to her, write to her, gifts for her– use our online communication tools!