The seventh day of July in the Chinese lunar calendar is Valentine's day in China.
Chinese Valentine's Day is officially called qiqixi Festival, also known as Qiqiao Festival, Qijie Festival, daughter's day, Qiqiao day, Qiniang Association, Qixi Festival, niuniuniupo day, Qiaoxi, etc. The Chinese Valentine's Day is derived from the worship of the stars. People pray for blessings and wishes, beg for skillful skills, sit and watch the morning glory and Vega, and pray for marriage. After thousands of years of historical development, the Chinese Valentine's day has been endowed with the beautiful love legend of "Cowherd and Weaver Girl", which makes it a festival symbolizing love. Therefore, it is regarded as the most romantic traditional festival in China, and has produced the cultural meaning of "Chinese Valentine's Day" in contemporary times.
Tanabata Festival is a love festival. It is a comprehensive festival with the folk legend of "Cowherd and Weaver Girl" as the carrier, praying for blessing, begging for cleverness and love as the theme, and women as the main body. It is said that every year on the seventh day of the seventh month of the lunar calendar, the Cowherd and weaving girl will meet on the magpie bridge in the sky.
Qixi Festival started in ancient times, popularized in the Western Han Dynasty, and flourished in the Song Dynasty. In ancient times, Chinese Valentine's Day is a special festival for pretty girls. Among the numerous folk customs of the Double Seventh Festival, a considerable part has been carried on by people. Qixi Festival originated in China. In some Asian countries influenced by Chinese culture, such as Japan, Korean Peninsula and Vietnam, there is also a tradition of celebrating the festival.
On the evening of Chinese Valentine's day, many beautiful girls "wear needles to the moon". On the evening of the seventh day of July, every family cleaned up their courtyards. Young women and girls should worship Vega piously and pray for their ingenuity. Then, they take out the colorful silk thread and seven silver needles prepared in advance and thread them in the moonlight. Whoever finishes the seven needles first indicates that she will become a skillful woman in the future.
In Yixing, Jiangsu Province, there is a custom of Qixi Xiangqiao. Every year, people come to participate in the festival and build incense bridges. The so-called fragrant bridge is a bridge four or five meters long and half a meter wide built with incense of various specifications. It is decorated with flowers and decorated with railings and colored threads. At night, people offer sacrifices to the two stars, beg for good fortune, and then burn the incense bridge, which symbolizes that the two stars have passed the fragrant bridge and meet happily. The fragrant bridge is derived from the legend of magpie bridge.
In recent years, with the influence of American culture, many young men and girls secretly date, send roses, book hotels and spend a good night together. Every year on Chinese Valentine's day, hotels are full and one room is hard to find.
Valentine's day culture originated from Europe and the United States, and then it was innovated in China. If you travel in China on this day, you are likely to meet beautiful girls or strong guys.
Why are hotels always full on Chinese Valentine's day?
Some single men and women also want to book a hotel, expecting to meet the opposite sex by chance and have a one night stand.