The Origin of Qixi Festival Story Summary Qixi Festival Cowherd and Weaver Girl Story Summary

The Qixi Festival, a festival for begging for cleverness, originated in the Han Dynasty. In the Western Capital Miscellaneous Records by Ge Hong of the Eastern Jin Dynasty, there is a record that "beautiful women of the Han Dynasty used to thread seven-hole needles in the open-collared tower on July 7th, and everyone was accustomed to it." This is the earliest record of begging for cleverness that we have seen in ancient documents. In later Tang and Song Dynasty poetry, women's begging for skills were repeatedly mentioned. Wang Jian of the Tang Dynasty wrote a poem saying "The dim stars are adorned with pearly light, and the palace maids are busy begging for skills on the Qixi Festival." According to "Kaiyuan Tianbao Yishi", Emperor Taizong of Tang and his concubines held banquets in the Qing Palace on the Qixi Festival every year, and the palace maids each begged for skills. This custom has been popular among the people and passed down from generation to generation.

During the Song and Yuan Dynasties, the Qixi Festival was quite grand, and there was even a market in the capital city that sold items for the Qixi Festival, which was known as the Qixi Market. Song Dynasty Luoye and Jin Yingzhi compiled "Zuiweng Tanlu" said: "On the Qixi Festival, people buy and sell Qiqiao items in front of Pan Tower. From July 1st, the carriages and horses are congested, and three days before the Qixi Festival, the carriages and horses are blocked and cannot pass. The traffic is blocked and people cannot get out until nightfall." Here, from the grand occasion of buying Qiqiao items in the Qixi Market, we can infer the lively scene of the Qixi Festival at that time. People start preparing for the Qiqiao Festival from the first day of July. The Qiqiao Market is bustling with people and vehicles. When it is close to the Chinese Valentine's Day, the Qiqiao Market becomes a sea of ​​people, with vehicles and horses having difficulty passing through. The atmosphere and customs seem to be no less than the grandest festival - the Spring Festival, which shows that the Qiqiao Festival was one of the favorite festivals of the ancients.

The legend of the Cowherd and the Weaver Girl The Chinese Valentine's Day has always been connected with the legend of the Cowherd and the Weaver Girl. This is a very beautiful love story that has been passed down through the ages and has become one of the four major folk love legends in my country.
According to legend, a long time ago, there was a smart man living in Niujiazhuang, west of Nanyang City. The honest young man lost his parents early and had to live with his brother and sister-in-law. His sister-in-law, Ma, was cruel and often abused him and forced him to do a lot of work. One autumn, his sister-in-law forced him to herd cattle. She gave him nine cows, but told him to wait until he had ten cows before he could go home. The cowherd had no choice but to drive the cattle out of the village.
The cowherd drove the cows into the mountains alone. On the mountain with deep grass and dense forests, he sat under a tree and felt sad. He didn't know when he could drive the ten cows back home. At this time, an old man with white hair and beard appeared in front of him and asked him why he was sad. After learning about his experience, he smiled and said to him: "Don't be sad. There is an old sick cow in Funiu Mountain. You go and feed it well. When the old cow recovers, you can drive it back home.
The cowherd climbed over mountains and walked a long way before he finally found the sick old cow. Seeing that the old cow was very ill, he fetched bundles of grass for the old cow and fed it for three days. When the old cow was full, it raised its head and told him that it was originally the gray cow immortal in the sky, but was demoted from heaven for violating the rules of heaven, broke its leg, and could not move. The cowherd's wound needed to be washed with dew from hundreds of flowers for a month to heal. The cowherd was not afraid of the hard work and took good care of the old cow for a month. During the day, he picked flowers and collected dew to heal the old cow's wound, and at night he snuggled up to the old cow to sleep. After the old cow recovered, the cowherd happily drove the ten cows back home.
After returning home, his sister-in-law was still mean to him and tried to harm him several times, but the old cow managed to save her every time. Finally, his sister-in-law became angry and drove Cowherd out of the house. Cowherd only wanted the old cow to stay with him.
One day, the Weaver Girl from the sky and other fairies came down to earth to play and bathe in the river. With the help of the old cow, the Cowherd met the Weaver Girl, and they fell in love with each other. Later, the Weaver Girl secretly came down to earth and became the Cowherd's wife. The Weaver Girl also distributed the silkworms she brought from heaven to everyone and taught everyone how to raise silkworms, reel in silk, and weave shiny and bright silk.