On 31 August 2006,
China marked festival of "Night
of 7th day in 7th month" (Qixi
七夕), an event associated
with the tragic story involving a
mixed marriage. It is said that Fairy
Seven (Qixiannu 七仙女) sneaked out of her
heavenly home to the mortal world and
took a low-paid weaver girl job in
order to marry her humble lover
Cowherd Boy. They subsequently had
two children, with the husband
working on the farmland and the wife
looking after the kids and making
clothes – the ideal family model
from the perspective of traditional
Chinese people.
But the good things
never last long, a phenomenon that is
so acutely observed in I Ching, so the cosy story has
to take a sad turn to complete. As
for who is that troublemaker,
opinions are divided. Some blame on
the fairy’s daddy, Jade Emperor (玉皇大帝), who ordered the
illegal immigrant to go back to where
she belonged; others point their
fingers squarely at her mom,
Celestial Queen Mother Wang (Wangmu
Niangniang 王母娘娘) who personally went
to the earth to drag her runaway
daughter back home. As it normally
happens, the drama between daughter
and mother are more theatrical. So as
the story has it, the daughter
resolutely refused to go with her
mom, and the son-in-law carrying two
kids determinedly pursued the pair.
Evidently Cowherd Boy possessed the
quality of a marathon champion and
soon he was about to catch up with
his celestial opponent. So the
reluctant mother-in-law pulled a long
silver pin from her hair and drew a
line in the sky that immediately
transformed into a great river –
the Milky Way (Yinghe in Chinese,
meaning Silver River 银河). And that is why, the
story says, the Altair (Cowherd Boy
Star) and the Vega (Weaver Girl Star)
are settled on the two sides of the
Heavenly gulf. The case in which a
mother violently broke up her
daughter’s de facto marriage was
allegedly brought before the
celestial court and eventually the
entitlement to family visit once a
year was granted.
Since then, on the
night of the lunar July 7, compassionate
and romantic Chinese magpies would
all join the army of volunteers,
using their body to bridge the Milky
Way and allow the family to meet.
Some people even claimed that they
had eavesdropped the love exchanges,
and the ear-witnesses include famous
figures like Emperor Tang Minghuang (唐明皇) and his Imperial
Concubine Yang Guifei (杨贵妃). Later celebrated
Chinese poet Bai Juyi (白居易) wrote a well-known
poem "Song of Lasting
Grief" (长恨歌), in which he depicted
how on the night of July 7 the royal
couple followed the touching example
of the pair on the magpie bridge
above and made their very own
love-vow.
Until about twenty
years ago, on hot summer evenings,
Chinese people would sit on the
street in front of their home to
catch cool breezes and to catch up on
cool gossips. When it happened to be
on the night of lunar July 7, mothers
and grandmothers would point to the
sky (instead of pointing at a TV
screen) to show youngster the
heavenly family reunion party.
Historically, Qixi was
also dubbed Maiden Festival (Nuerjie 女儿节) and Lady’s Arts Day
(Qiqiaojie 乞巧节), when young women
would invite Fairy Seven to hold
teaching workshops on fashion design,
dress making and gourmet cooking. But
nowadays, Qixi has been promoted as
China’s answer to St. Valentine’s
Day, despite its original message (if
there is a message to be spread) has
more to do with family values than
love passions. Because it is not
about how to get married but how to
hold a family together.
Yet the promotions
clearly have worked. And, as lunar
July 7 will be marked twice this year
- which happens only once in every 38
years and the next lunar July 7 is on
30 August - Qixi 2006 is seen by many
Chinese as especially propitious to
tie the knot. On July 31 (the first
Qixi), the number of people getting
married in Hangzhou is three-fold increase
over normal summer days, and in
Shanghai, long queues were lined up
before the dawn waiting to register
their marriage at district civil
administration offices. Similar
stories were reported about other
cities in China.
Here is a Chinese verse
that praises the Qixi festival:
Looking into the night
sky on the seventh of July,
Where lovers unite on the bridge made
of magpie.
七夕抬头望碧宵，
喜鹊双双拱鹊桥。
