Just like Valentine’s Day in the West, China also has a day devoted to love. Qixi Festival, or the seventh eve of the seventh month on the Lunar calendar, falls on the 29th of August this year.
Chinese have many special activities to celebrate this festival, especially among lovers. A series of folk culture and tourism activities was held across China.
Tiantai is a town in East China’s Zhejiang province. It has a history of 1,800 years. In 2025, it will host the Qixi Festival Gala. This is an annual program to celebrate the festival.
The town’s Zhexi stream, a tourist attraction paved with red cobblestone and flanked by traditional buildings, will serve as the main stage. The show will feature spectacular displays, including 1,000 drones that will create dazzling visual effects.
According to the organisers, the gala will leverage the natural scenery to evoke imagery from the Qixi Festival’s founding legend.
Many couples participated in a group wedding ceremony in Dongbaihu Town of Zhuji City, Zhejiang Province. Group wedding ceremonies have become quite a popular form of marriage celebration in recent years, as they not only inherit the culture of traditional festivals but also meet the needs of modern people for a simple yet ritualistic wedding.
Children also participated in the celebrations. Children at a summer daycare centre in Shandong province learned to make qiaohua, a pastry prepared for the Qixi Festival. In the Jiaodong region, making and sharing qiaohua is a custom marking the festival.
Parents said the activity not only introduced children to the flavours of the season but also offered a hands-on lesson in the cultural heritage of Qixi.
Why Chinese Celebrate Qixi?
Qixi Festival dates back to a legendary romantic tale from the Han dynasty. It tells of a cowherd and a weaver girl, the youngest daughter of the Heavenly Emperor, who fell in love and married.
Their union, however, enraged the Heavenly Empress, who forcibly separated them. Once a year, on Qixi, they are allowed to reunite by crossing a bridge formed by magpies across the Milky Way.
Written by Sha Liu, additional reporting by Xinhua, China Daily and Ecns.cn.
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