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March 8, 2014 |
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Japan also celebrates this festival as the Tanabata festival, celebrating the meeting of Orihime (Vega) and Hikoboshi (Altair). (See #The Story of Cowherd and Weaver Girl|The Story of Cowherd and Weaver Girl) On Qi Qiao Jie eve in late summer the stars Altair and Vega are high in the night sky and the Chinese tell the following love story, of which there are many variations: A young cowherd named Niu Lang (牛郎, the star Altair) happens across seven fairy sisters bathing in a lake. Encouraged by his mischievous companion the ox, he steals their clothes and waits to see what will happen next. The fairy sisters elect the youngest and most beautiful sister Zhi N? (織女, weaver girl, the star Vega) to retrieve their clothing. She does so, but since Niu Lang sees her naked she must agree to his request for marriage. She proves to be a wonderful wife, and Niu Lang a good husband, and they are very happy together. But the Goddess of Heaven (in some versions Zhi N?'s mother) finds out that a mere mortal has married one of the fairy girls and is furious. (In another version, the Goddess forced the weaver fairy back to her former duty of weaving colorful clouds in the sky because she could not do her job while married to the mortal.) Taking out her hairpin, the Goddess scratches a wide river in the sky to separate the two lovers forever (thus forming the Milky Way separating Altair and Vega). Zhi N? must sit forever on one side of the river, sadly weaving on her loom, while Niu Lang watches her from afar and takes care of the two kids (his flanking stars Aquila -β and -γ). But once a year all the magpies in the world take pity on them and fly up into heaven to form a bridge (Que Qiao 鵲橋) over the star Deneb in the Cygnus constellation so the lovers may be together for a single night, the seventh night of the seventh moon. This is the night of Qi Qiao Jie! See also: The Jade Emperor#The princess and the cowherd|The Princess and the Cowherd
On Qi Qiao Jie night, a festoon is placed in the yard and the single or newly married women in the household make an offering to Niu Lang and Zhi Nu consisting of fruit, flowers, tea, and facial powder (makeup). After finishing the offering, half of the facial powder is thrown on the roof and the other half divided among the young women. In this way the women are bound in beauty with Zhi Nu! Two other days have romantic associations in China: Valentine's Day on February 14th, borrowed from the West, and Lantern Festival|Lantern Festival Day on which an ummarried girl was traditionally permitted to appear in public unescorted and thus be seen by eligible bachelors.
Category:Chinese holidays Category:Chinese astronomy zh:七夕 fr:Qi_Qiao_Jie This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Qi Qiao Jie".
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