China celebrates the Qixi festival this Thursday.

It always takes place on the seventh day of the seventh month in the lunar calendar.

It is also considered to be "Chinese Valentine's Day" along with commercialization and sales promotions.

But the festival actually has a long history and goes back to the more than two thousand year old folk tale of the cowherd Niulang and the weaver Zhinü.

Manon Priebe

editor.

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These two connect – or better: separate – a forbidden love.

For the weaver was an immortal, the cowherd a human.

During a secret trip to earth, the divine weaver fell in love with the mortal cowherd.

They got married and they lived happily on earth - until the sky goddess (in some versions she is the weaver's mother) found out about the forbidden marriage and ordered the weaver back to heaven.

The Milky Way separates the lovers

How could the lovers be reunited?

The heartbroken husband was tipped off by an ox that wearing the ox's leather could take him to heaven and be reunited with his wife.

The shepherd managed to ascend to heaven, even together with the two children.

However, he angered his mother-in-law, the supreme goddess.

She then took her hairpin and scratched a wide cut between the cowherd and the weaver.

This dividing ditch is the Milky Way, which separates the stars Altair (symbolizing the cowherd) and Vega (representing the weaver).

So the lovers sit on opposite sides of the Milky Way, mourning.

In fact, the stars Altair and Vega are about 16 light-years apart.

The weaver weaves and the cowherd watches her from afar, watching over her two children, the stars Beta Aquilae and Gamma Aquilae.

Once a year, however, all the magpies - hence the alternative name "Festival of Magpies" - fly into the sky and form a bridge so that the lovers can be together for a night.

This happens every year on the seventh night of the seventh month, which is August 4, 2022 according to the Gregorian calendar. In the coming year, Qixi falls on August 22, 2023 exploration of the far side of the moon.

Another name for the festival is "Qiqiao," which means "ask for manual dexterity."

Weaver Zhinu was responsible in heaven for weaving the clothes of the heavenly beings and the clouds.

Because in the past good housewifery skills were essential in the marriage market, women asked the divine weaver for similar skills.

Google celebrates Qixi with its own doodle

Many poems deal with the legend, one of the better known: "The Immortals at the Bridge of Magpies" by Qin Guan.

It is considered an encouragement for couples in long-distance relationships.

Two lines read loosely translated: "If the love between the two is forever, why do they have to be together every day and every night?" Traditionally, this "Chinese Valentine's Day" is about believing in (true) love - instead of about Commerce, flowers and chocolates.

Today's Doodle, a variation of the Google search engine logo, also pays tribute to the Qixi Festival.

However, the Doodle, a scanned print by artist Celine You, will only be displayed in Germany, Switzerland, Great Britain and Taiwan.

Other Asian countries celebrate variations of the Qixi Festival on the seventh day of the seventh lunar month.

In Japan it is called Tanabata, Chilseok in Korea, Thất Tịch in Vietnam.