What's the festival on July 7th?

The seventh day of the seventh lunar month [1] is a traditional festival of Han nationality in China, Qixi. Because the main participants in this day's activities are girls, the content of the festival activities is mainly begging skills, so people call this day "begging skills festival" or "daughter's day" or "daughter's day". Tanabata is one of the most romantic traditional festivals in China and the most important day for girls in the past. That night, women pricked needles to pray for Fu Lushou. On the seventh day, the ceremony was pious and grand, and flowers and fruits were displayed. All kinds of furniture and utensils are exquisite and small, which makes people fondle them. On May 20th, 2006, China Valentine's Day was listed in the first batch of national intangible cultural heritage by the State Council. Tanabata is nicknamed "Zhou". Wang Bo's Tanabata Fu "Stay in the Week, Full Moon and Evening" compares the week with the moon and evening, and points out the two most beautiful and touching nights related to family and love in a year. Because of this, later generations call the auspicious day for men and women to get married "Zhou". On a clear summer and autumn night, the sky is full of stars, and a white galaxy spans the north and south like a bridge. On the east and west banks of the river, there is a shining star across the river, that is Altair and Vega. It is a folk custom to sit and watch morning glory and weaver girl on Tanabata. According to legend, this night every year is the time when the Weaver Girl and the Cowherd meet at the Magpie Bridge. The Weaver Girl is a beautiful, clever and clever fairy. On this night, ordinary women prayed to her for wisdom and skillful skills, and they also prayed to her for a happy marriage. Therefore, the seventh day of July is also called Begging Festival. It is said that on Tanabata night, you can look up and see the Milky Way where the Cowherd and the Weaver Girl meet, and you can also eavesdrop on the love story when they meet in the sky under the melon and fruit shelf. On this romantic night, facing the bright moon in the sky, the girls put the fruits and vegetables of the season in the sky, begging the fairy in the sky to give them intelligent hearts and dexterous hands, so that they can master their needlework skills, and even beg for the combination of love and marriage. In the past, marriage was a lifelong event for women to decide whether they were happy or not. Therefore, on this quiet night, countless sentient men and women in the world will pray for a happy marriage under the stars. Valentine's Day in China originated in Chinese Valentine's Day, formerly known as Qiaojie Begging Festival. The Qixi Begging for Qiao Qi originated in the Han Dynasty. Ge Hong's Miscellaneous Notes on Xijing in the Eastern Jin Dynasty recorded that "women in the Han Dynasty often opened the front building on July 7 with seven-hole needles on Han stone reliefs, which was the earliest begging record in ancient documents we have seen." Qixi originated from people's worship of nature. According to historical documents, at least three or four thousand years ago, with people's understanding of astronomy and the emergence of textile technology, there was a record of Altair Vega. People worship the stars far more than Altair and Vega. They think that there are seven stars representing directions in the east, west, north and south, which are collectively called 28 nights, among which the Big Dipper is the brightest and can be used to tell directions at night. The first star of the Big Dipper is called Kuixing, also known as the champion. Later, with the imperial examination system, the top scholar in the middle school was called "Dakui Scholar in the World", and the scholars called Tanabata "Kuixing Festival" or "Book-drying Festival", which preserved the trace that the earliest Tanabata originated from worshipping stars. Qixi also comes from the ancient people's worship of time. "Seven" and "period" are homophonic, and both the month and the day are "seven", which gives people a sense of time. In ancient China, the sun and moon, together with the five planets of water, fire, wood, gold and earth, were called "Seven Obsidian". Seven figures are staged in time among the people, and the calculation of time often ends with "July 7th". In old Beijing, when doing Dojo for the dead, it was often done by "July 7th". Using "seven obsidians" to calculate the current "week" is still reserved in Japanese. "Seven" is homophonic with "auspiciousness", and "July 7th" has a double meaning of auspiciousness and is an auspicious day. In Taiwan Province Province, July is called "Joy brings good luck" month. Because the happy character in cursive script looks like "seventy-seven", 77 years old is also called "happy birthday." Tanabata is also a phenomenon of digital worship. In ancient times, people listed the seventh day of the first month, the third day of March, the fifth day of May, the seventh day of July and the ninth day of September as auspicious days, plus the even number of February 2 and the multiple of June 6. "Seven" is the number of beads in each column of the abacus, which is romantic and rigorous, giving people a mysterious aesthetic feeling. Seven "and" wife "are homophonic, so Qixi has largely become a festival related to women. China Valentine's Day, also known as Cowherd and Weaver Girl (carved paper), has a pair of sevens: the sun, the moon and the sun are all seven, so it is called, also called seven. Xiangri: According to legend, the cowherd and the weaver girl meet on Tanabata, and the weaver girl should dress up, paint and even smell the fragrance all over the sky, hence the name. Week: Cowherd and Weaver Girl have special status, and they can only meet once a year, so this day is called week. Qiaoxi: It is called Qiaoxi because there is a custom of pleasing on Qixi. Women's Day: Valentine's Day in China is called Women's Day, also called Girls' Day and Girls' Day, because girls worship immortals and strive for cleverness. Blue Night: The seventh month of the lunar calendar was called "blue moon" in ancient times, so Tanabata is also called "blue night". Children's Day: It's called because the customs such as being clever and begging for books are mostly done by girls and boys. Needle-piercing Festival: It is named after the custom of needle-piercing on this day. The Qixi custom "A Tour of Man Qing in the Moon" is the earliest way of begging for cleverness with needles, which began in the Han Dynasty and spread to later generations. "Miscellanies of Xijing" said: "Women in the Han Dynasty often wear seven-hole needles in the building, and people have aspirations. "Chronicle of Jingchu Age" written by Liang Zongmou in the Southern Dynasties said: "On July 7th, it was a woman from Xijia who tied seven holes in the colorful building, or used gold and silver as needles. "Geography" said: "Emperor Wu of Qi began to visit the city on the first floor. On July 7, court officials tried to thread the needle several times. The world calls it the needle-piercing building. "The Five Dynasties Wang Renyu's" The Legacy of Kaiyuan Tianbao "said:" On the Qixi Festival, the palace was made of brocade, which was hundreds of feet high and could beat dozens of people in the world. Chen baked melons and fruits with wine, set a banquet, worshipped cows and girls, and each of his concubines wore a nine-hole needle, with five-color lines facing the moon. This is a wonderful time. It's fun to play the song of Qing business. The Native House is effective. Yuan Tao Zong Yi's Record of Ye Ting in Yuanshi County said: "Chinese Valentine's Day is a place of ingenuity. In the evening, the ladies-in-waiting went on stage to wear Kyubi no Youko needles with colored silk. The person who finishes first is smart, and the person who finishes late is called a loser. Everyone contributed to the gift. "Love spiders should be smart, which is also an earlier way to beg for wisdom. Its custom is a little later than seeking cleverness with needles, which probably began in the Southern and Northern Dynasties. In the Southern Dynasties, Liang Zonggu's Chronicle of Jingchu said; In the evening, Chen Guaguo begged for cleverness in court. If you have a happy subnet on melon, you think it corresponds. "The Five Dynasties Wang Renyu's" Kaiyuan Tianbao Legacy "said:" On July 7, we all caught spiders in small boxes until dawn; Think of cobwebs as sparse and dense. Secret people have many clever words, while rare people have few clever words. So are folk works. Meng Yuanyuan, a poet in A Dream in Tokyo, wrote that on the seventh day of July, "Put a spider in the zygote and watch it the next day. If the net is round, it's just a coincidence. Song Zhou Mi's When I was One Year Old says how long does it take to store spiders in the house and wait for the density of the net? Tomita Rucheng's "Joy of the Tide" said that on Tanabata, "It is very clever to put spiders in a small box and observe the density of their webs the next morning. "It can be seen that the methods of testing ingenuity in past dynasties are different. The existence of the visual network in the Southern and Northern Dynasties, the thinness of the visual network in the Tang Dynasty, and the roundness of the visual network in the Song Dynasty, followed the customs of the Tang Dynasty in later generations. This is a variation of Chinese Valentine's Day's needlework custom, which originates from needlework and is different from needlework. This is a popular Valentine's Day custom in China during the Ming and Qing Dynasties. Dong and Yu Yizheng's "A Brief Introduction to the Scenery of the Imperial Capital" said: "On the afternoon of July 7th, we lost a clever needle. When a woman comes into contact with water, the water film looks strange, and the embroidery needle floats and looks at the shadow of the underwater needle. There are clouds, flowers, birds and animals, shoes, scissors and eggplant shadows, which are called clever begging; Its shadow is as thick as a hammer, as thin as silk and as straight as axis wax, which is wrong. "Records of Zhili" also said that in Liangxiang County (now southwest of Beijing), "On July 7, women begged for cleverness, threw needles into the water, and inspected their work by the shadow of the sun, and they were still begging for cleverness at night. "Please quote ten thousand miscellaneous notes from" An Examination of Old News in the Sun ":"On July 7th, the female Yan Dou threw a small needle into the water. Or scattered like a flower, moving like a cloud, as thin as a line, as thick as a cone, all because of the ingenuity of the diviner. "Cultivating children is an ancient custom. A few days before Tanabata, first put a layer of soil on the small board, plant the seeds of millet and give birth to green seedlings. Then put some small huts and flowers and trees on it to make it look like a small village, which is called "shell board", or soak mung beans, adzuki beans and wheat in a magnetic bowl until they grow into inch buds, and then use red and blue silk. All parts of the south are also called "bubble cleverness", and the sprouted bean sprouts are called smart buds. Even the needles are replaced by smart buds and thrown on the water to beg for cleverness. Wax is also used to create various images, such as the characters in the story of the Cowherd and the Weaver Girl, or the shapes of animals such as vultures and mandarin ducks, which float on the water, which is called "floating on the water". There are also baby dolls made of wax, which women can buy home and float in the water and soil to show their good luck to their children, which is called "metaplasia". To worship "Moeli" Moeli is a kind of children's plaything in the old society, that is, a small clay doll, whose image is mostly a lotus leaf skirt with a lotus leaf. On July 7th every year, in Kaifeng, "the tiles outside the Dongsongmen Gate of Panlou Street, the tiles outside the Xiliangmen Gate of Zhou Zhou, the tiles outside the North Gate, the tiles outside the South Suzaku Gate and the tiles in Xingjie Ma are all plastic puppets". In fact, the grinding and drinking music after the end of the Song Dynasty is no longer a puppet, on the contrary, it has become more and more exquisite. Moeli varies in size and posture, and the largest is as high as three feet, comparable to a real child. The materials made are ivory carving or bergamot carving, and the dressing of grinding and drinking music is extremely beautiful. There are painted wood carvings as column seats, or red sand cages as covers, and the toys in hand are mostly decorated with precious stones. The cost of grinding and drinking music is often as high as several thousand yuan. Worshiping the weaver girl on Tanabata is purely a matter for girls and young women. Most of them make an appointment with five or six people, at most a dozen people, with friends or neighbors in advance to hold it together. The ceremony is to lay a table in the moonlight, and put tea, wine, fruit, five sons (longan, red dates, hazelnuts, peanuts, melon seeds) and other sacrifices on the table. There are also some flowers, tied with red paper, inserted in the bottle, with a small incense burner in front. Then, the young women and girls who make an appointment to attend the worship of the Weaver Maid will fast for one day, take a bath and come to their host's house on time. After burning incense in front of the case, everyone will sit around the table and meditate on their thoughts while eating peanuts and melon seeds. If a girl wants to be beautiful or marry a husband, and a young woman wants to have a baby early, she can silently pray to the Weaver Girl. Play until midnight. The custom of worshipping Kuixing is that July 7th is Kuixing's birthday. Kuixing literature, literati who want to be famous especially worship Kuixing, so they must worship him on Tanabata and pray for his success in the exam. Kuixing is mainly Kuidou, the Kuixing in the twenty-eight nights, the first star of the Big Dipper, and also the Kuixing or champion. In ancient times, scholars were called "the greatest scholars in the world" or "winning the championship in one fell swoop" because Kuixing was in charge of the exam. According to folklore, Lord Kuixing is ugly, his face is covered with spots and he is lame. Someone wrote a limerick to make fun of him: if you don't publicize it, why decorate it? Even lead, don't cover it. Marrying Ma Gu into two beauties is no worse than coming to the hive. Leave claws under the eyebrows, and geese step on the sand beside their noses and mouths. It's just a nap in front of the eaves, and the wind blows plum blossoms on your forehead. Xiang Jun's jade toe is the strangest, with one high and one low. I want to dance when I take a leisurely walk, and the degree of fluttering is like a mouth. Only the road in the world is dangerous, and I am so tired that I am surprised. Don't laugh, the waist branches are often half folded, and the temporary swaying is also colorful. However, the champion was ambitious and worked hard, so he went to high school. When the Emperor visited him, he asked him why his face was covered with spots. He replied: "Ma's face is full of stars"; Asked why he was lame, he replied "hop on one foot". The emperor was very satisfied and accepted him. Another completely different legend says that Lord Kuixing was knowledgeable before his death, but unfortunately he failed every exam, so he threw himself into the river in grief and indignation. Unexpectedly, he was saved by turtle fish and ascended to heaven to become a champion. Because Kuixing can affect the test luck of scholars, every year on July 7th, his birthday, scholars should solemnly worship. According to records, Sima Yi was very suspicious of Cao Cao because of his high status and great power. In view of the political darkness at that time, he pretended to be crazy and hid at home in order to protect himself. Wei Wudi was still worried, so he sent a close friend to let history secretly explore the truth. It was July 7, and Sima Yi, who was pretending to be crazy and selling stupidity, was also drying books at home. Make history back to leave Wei Wudi, Wei Wudi immediately ordered Sima Yi back to the office, otherwise you can be taken into custody. Sima yi only obediently obeyed and returned to the DPRK. Another kind of people, in troubled times, express their depression through depravity. They despise etiquette and oppose custom. Liu Yiqing said in volume 25 of Shi Shuo Xin Yu that on July 7th, everyone printed books, and only Long Hao went to bask in the sun. When people asked him why, he replied, "I print books." On the one hand, it despises the custom of printing books, on the other hand, it also boasts about the talent in its belly. Drying your belly is also drying books. During the Wei and Jin Dynasties, the custom of hanging clothes in the Han Dynasty created opportunities for rich children to boast about their wealth. Ruan Xian, one of the "Seven Sages of Bamboo Forest", looked down on this style. On July 7, when neighbors were hanging clothes, they saw that the shelves were full of silks and satins, which was dazzling. Ruan Xian unhurriedly picked up a worn-out dress with a bamboo pole. Someone asked him what he was doing, and he said, "I can't avoid custom and talk to you!" "From these short stories, we can see how prosperous the custom of drying books and clothes on Tanabata is. Children will pick wild flowers and hang them on horns on Tanabata, which is called "Happy Birthday" (it is said that Tanabata is the birthday of cattle). Eating proper fruit is the most famous festive food on Tanabata. Proper fruit, also called "Kiki Fruit", has many styles. The main raw material of fruit is oily molasses. "Dream of China in Tokyo" refers to it as "laughing boy" and "eating fruit patterns", and the patterns include holding incense and winning prizes. During the Song Dynasty, the unique fruits of Qixi were already sold on the streets of the city. If you buy a catty of proper fruit, there will be a pair of dolls in armor, such as door gods, which are called "General Fruit food". The way to make a proper fruit is to melt sugar into syrup in a pot, then add flour and sesame seeds, mix well, spread it on the table, let it cool, cut it into squares with a knife, especially fold it into spindle-shaped dough, and fry it until golden. Handy women will also create various patterns related to the legend of Qixi. In addition, the melons and fruits that can be used skillfully can also be varied. Or carve melons and fruits into exotic flowers and birds, or emboss patterns on the surface of melon skin. Appropriate fruit is called "flower melon", and flower melon is the most common Qixi food. However, in history, different dynasties had different dietary customs. For example, soup cakes were popular in Wei Dynasty on July 7th. In the Tang Dynasty, festival foods included cakes on July 7th, which was designated as the book-drying festival. Each of the three provinces and six departments gives a certain amount of banquet money, which is called the "book-printing party". Tanabata is also a day suitable for dispensing medicines. It is said to be a secret recipe with pine and cypress as medicinal materials. This magic pill was made with dew on July 7th. Taking one pill can prolong life for ten years, and taking two pills can prolong life for twenty years. In addition, there are bait pine nuts, arborvitae seeds, stacked lotus leaves and so on. , are called the medicine of immortality. The more practical prescriptions are dried Sophora juice for hemorrhoids, fried bitter gourd for eyes, and pedicled melon for diarrhea. Only those who have tried know how effective it is.