What customs do people have on the seventh day of the seventh lunar month every year?

"Worship the Weaver Girl" 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.

Nail painting

Nail dyeing is the custom of Qixi Festival, which is popular in southwest China. It is also popular in many county records in Sichuan Province, as well as in Guizhou and Guangdong. Young girls in many areas like to wash their hair with the sap of trees during festivals. Not only can you be young and beautiful, but you can also let unmarried women find a suitable husband as soon as possible. Dyeing nails with flowers and plants is also a hobby of most women and children in holiday entertainment, and it is also closely related to reproductive beliefs.

Female shampoo

It is also a special custom for women to wash their hair on Tanabata. It is recorded in Hunan, Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces. For example, in Xiangtan, Hunan Province, "Records of Youxian County": "On July 7, women picked peach branches with cypress leaves and soaked them in soup." The famous essayist (from Zhejiang) also mentioned in her Notes that her mother, uncles, aunts and other harem members all washed their hair on Tanabata. This custom is related to the Tanabata belief in "holy water". It is believed that taking spring water and river water on Tanabata Day is as sacred as taking water from the Milky Way. Some places directly call it "the holy water of Tiansun (Weaver Girl)". Therefore, it is of special significance for women to wash their hair on this day, which means that with the holy water of the Milky Way, they will be protected by the goddess Vega.

It is also popular to catch dew with a washbasin. Legend has it that the dew on Tanabata is the tears when cowherd and weaver girl meet. If you put it in your eyes and hands, it can make people agile.

Ligate the ancient bridge

In the Loess Plateau of Shaanxi Province, it is also a custom to hold various begging activities on Tanabata night. Women often have to tie up grass people in flowered clothes, which is called the ancient bridge. They should not only provide melons and fruits, but also plant bean sprouts and shallots. On the night of Qixi, all the women held a bowl of water in their hands, cut bean sprouts and shallots, put them into the water, and used the shadow of the moon to predict the fate of cleverness. They also wear needles and thread to compete. At the same time, there will be activities to cut window grilles.

Bai qi Niang ma

Minnan dialect and Tanabata in Taiwan Province Province are the birthdays of "Qi Niang". Qi is a very popular way of offering sacrifices among the people and is regarded as an idol to protect children's safety and health. According to the textual research of the book Minnan People written by Lin Zaifu, a scholar from Taiwan Province Province in southern Fujian, most Minnan people have not been able to return to Taiwan Province Province or other foreign countries for business for many years, so women have to pin all their hopes on their children, and only with hope can they have the courage to live. Therefore, Tanabata, a lovesick festival, has evolved into a blessing for the "seven mothers" who protect their children.

On this day every year, people go to Qiniangma Temple in groups of three and five, offering flowers, fruits, powders and sacrifices. On this day, a "rite of passage" is also popular in Taiwan Province Province, that is, when a child reaches the age of 15, his parents will lead him to the Seven Mothers Temple to reward him for protecting his child through childhood, childhood and adolescence. On this day, Tainan will hold a rite of passage for a child aged 16 who is "sixteen". People in Taiwan Province Province believe that children were raised by fairy birds-mother birds-before 16 years old. The mother bird is Qi Tuo, so Qi became the patron saint of underage children. After the baby is one year old, the pious mother or grandmother will hold the baby in her arms, bring rich sacrifices, add cockscomb flowers and thousand-day red flowers, go to the temple to worship, pray for the year of Qi Ma to bless the child to grow up safely, and tie it around her neck with red envelopes or lock cards with ancient money until 16 years old. Only in this way can she win the lock card on Tanabata, thanks to Qi Ma's blessing for many years. Some parents, in addition to paying homage to the "Seven Mothers" on Tanabata, specially invited relatives and friends to celebrate their children's adult ceremony. Although the folk Tanabata in southern Fujian and Taiwan Province Province is not very particular, it attaches great importance to the custom of health food. On the occasion of Tanabata, almost every household will buy Chinese medicine gentlemen and pomegranates.

Eat proper fruit.

Proper fruit is the most famous holiday food in Chinese Valentine's Day. Proper fruit, also called "Kiki Fruit", has many styles. The main materials are oil, flour, sugar and honey. "Dream of China in Tokyo" refers to it as "laughing boy" and "eating fruit patterns", and the patterns include holding incense and winning prizes. In the Song Dynasty, appropriate fruits were sold in the market. The method of proper fruit is: first, put sugar into a pot and melt it into syrup, then mix it with flour and sesame seeds, spread it on the table, let it cool, cut it into cubes with a knife, and finally fold it into spindle-shaped proper fruit embryo and fry it until golden. Handy women will also create various patterns related to the legend of Qixi.

In addition, there are many changes in the melons and fruits used in Qiqiao: either the melons and fruits are carved into exotic flowers and birds, or the surface of the melon skin is embossed; This kind of melon is called "flower melon".

The seventh day of July, also known as China Valentine's Day, Beggar's Day and the seventh day of the seventh lunar month, is a traditional festival of the Han nationality with a long history. According to the folklore of the Han nationality, on the night of the seventh day of the seventh lunar month, magpies bridge the Milky Way, so that the Cowherd and the Weaver Girl can meet on the bridge. This is an ancient custom. On this night, Han girls have to wear needles to beg for wisdom. The meeting of the magpie and the bridge praised the unswerving love of the working people of the Han nationality and their strong desire to pursue a better life.