Tanabata Festival: The Only Traditional Festival Featuring Women In China

August 16th (the 7th day of the seventh month of the Chinese lunar calendar) is a traditional Chinese festival.

Wang Laihua, Professor of Tianjin Academy of Social Sciences, said Qixi Festival is also called Qiqiao Festival. It is a special festival for women.

In ancient times, people attached great importance to the annual custom of begging, and all kinds of contents and forms were also interesting.

In the way of begging, the past dynasties have been constantly renovated, and customs and customs in different places are also different.

The custom of "Bu Qiao" is to ask women if they are stupid or clever.

The most widely spread number is "the puncture of the moon" and "the needle passing through the needle".

This is the earliest way of begging. It began in the Han Dynasty, that is, women's matches were needled. They wore colored lines and wore seven holes. The faster they wore, the more skillful they were.

Slowly dressed is called "lose skillful".

Those who lose their fortune should give gifts that have been prepared beforehand.

"Cross the needle" refers to the early July in the early July, the evening, every household clean up the courtyard, young women and girls to the first.

Folklore experts say that whether it is begging for ingenuity or begging for a happy marriage, it shows a woman's sincere yearning for a happy life, which adds infinite beauty to the most romantic holiday.

Origin and legend of Tanabata

Qixi, Qiqiao, originated in the Han Dynasty. In the Eastern Jin Dynasty, Ge Hong's "Xijing miscellany" has a record of "Han Cai women often wears seven holes in the open house, and people are accustomed to it" in July 7th. This is the earliest recorded account of Qiqiao in our ancient literature.

In later Tang and Song poetry, women's begging was also mentioned repeatedly. Wang Jianyou's poems in the Tang Dynasty said, "the stars are full of pearlescent, and Qixi Gong Ying is busy."

According to "Kaiyuan Tianbao relics": Tang Taizong and the imperial concubine in the seventh evening at the Qing palace night banquet, the maids are begging each other, this custom is also enduring in the folk, and continues from generation to generation.

On the occasion of the song and Yuan Dynasties, Qixi was very grand. In the capital city, there was also a market for monopoly, which was called "Qiqiao city".

Song Luoye and Jin Ying's collection of drunken talk, said: "Tanabata, pan Lou Qian Qian Qiao before the sale of things.

Since July 1st, the horses and horses had been swallowed, and three days before the seventh day of the seventh lunar month, the horses and horses were not allowed to pass.

Here, the grand occasion of purchasing qiqiqi from Qiqiao city can be used to infer the bustling scene of Qixi Festival.

From the beginning of July, people began to set up Qiqiao articles, and the city of Malone in Qiqiao city and the flow of people were like tide. When it came to the time of the seventh day of the seventh lunar month, the city of Qiqiao became a sea of people, and the horses and horses were difficult to travel.