First of all, Valentine’s Day is not a tradition in China. But why we are talking about Qi Xi (pronounced as Chee Shee), Chinese Valentine’s day?

With the open door policy in China, young Chinese were influenced by western cultures, for example, celebrating the Christmas and the Valentine’s Day. Then there were some debates arguing why young Chinese were so keen on those imported cultures but ignoring the long and grand history of China?

Some researchers then argued history and the traditions should renovate itself to catch up with the development of the society. Some people then did a bit research on Chinese tradition and culture and decided the seventh day of the seventh month of the lunar calendar (the Gregorian calendar) is the Chinese Valentine’s Day because of the well known beautiful love story in China.

The poor cowherd fell in love with Weaving Maid, the youngest daughter of the Queen of Heaven and got married and had a boy and a girl afterwards. But their love was forbidden and Weaving Maid was forced to go back to the heaven. In order to separate the couple forever, the Queen of Heaven pulled off her hairpin to draw a deep line between the two. The river was called Silver River in China, known in the west as Milky Way. Eventually, their faithful love moved the magpies. On the seventh eve of the seventh lunar month each year, thousands of magpies flocked together to form a bridge over the the Milky Way so that the couple were able to meet each other on the bridge.

Actually this is Chinese wisdom to explain astronomy. But in this way, the old story and tradition was then well accepted by the public especially the young generation as the Chinese Valentine’s Day.

This year, the seventh day of the seventh month of the lunar calendar is 26th August. No matter people love it or not, shops definitely love it, big sale day again!

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