Today is one of those Chinese holidays that we celebrate. Both readers of this blog know that Valentine’s Day on February 14th is celebrated by us either before or after the actual holiday because restaurants are just too crowded on the 14th.
So today, we get to celebrate Valentine’s Day on the actual date — restaurants aren’t generally overflowing on Chinese Valentine’s Day. Chinese Valentine’s Day falls on the 7th day of the 7th lunar month of the Chinese calendar — this year, it’s today, August 14.
This Chinese holiday goes by different names — originally it was called the Double Seven Festival. Its formal name in Chinese is the Qi-Xi Festival. And it sometimes goes by the name of The Daughter’s Festival — the day for unmarried young girls looking for love.
In China, on Chinese Valentine’s Day, people in love like to go to the Temple of Matchmaker and pray for their love and possible marriage.
As I mentioned, today is also known as The Daughter’s Festival. Long ago, Chinese girls always wanted to train themselves to have a good handcrafting skill like the Weaving Maid. The skill is essential for their future family. On the night of the festival, unmarried girls may pray for the Weaving Maid star to let them become smarter. When the star Vega (the Weaving Maid star) is high up in the sky, girls do a test, which is to put a needle on the water surface. If the needle doesn’t sink, then the girl is already smart enough and ready to find a husband. Girls may ask for any wish, but only one per year.
But for me, at least, this Valentines’s Day is even better than the one in February — the restaurants aren’t crowded, you don’t have to order from a special menu and although nothing says you have to have Chinese food today, I think today’s a good day for it… and of course top it off with some plum wine.
— 30 —