The Origin of Valentine's Day in China
Chinese people call the seventh day of the seventh lunar month "China Valentine's Day", which is a traditional festival of the Han nationality. It comes from the Cowherd and the Weaver Girl, one of the four great folklore in China.
According to folklore, a long time ago, there was a man named Niulang. He is very kind, his parents died young and lived with his brother and sister-in-law. The harsh sister-in-law often bullied him, and finally instigated the two brothers to split up, taking possession of the land and house and giving him only an old cow. The Weaver Girl is the granddaughter of the Queen Mother. She is smart and beautiful. One day, the weaver girl fell in love with the cowherd at first sight and got married with the help of the old cow. Unfortunately, the good times did not last long. After the Queen Mother knew, the Weaver Girl was taken back to heaven, and the Cowherd provoked the children to chase after her. The queen mother drew a Tianhe with golden hairpin to separate the sentient men and women.
Enthusiastic magpies couldn't bear it, so they flew to the Tianhe River on the night of the seventh day of July to build a "Magpie Bridge" to meet the cowherd and the Weaver Girl, so there was a saying that "magpies are scarce on the seventh day of July". The story of the Cowherd and the Weaver Girl originates from the worship of stars, and is the anthropomorphic product of the myth of the Cowherd and the Vega, so it can be said that this is the myth of the sun, the moon and the stars. The reason why the weaver girl is called the weaver girl is said to be because she is ingenious and specialized in weaving heaven. Therefore, on the night of July 7th, young girls and young women will make all kinds of clever food to display several cases in the courtyard, and pray for ingenuity, so there is a "festival of seeking cleverness".
Tanabata Festival custom
1, Pinning for Cleverness This is the earliest way to seek cleverness, 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 Jinkai Building on July 7, and people have the ambition of Xi." The Chronicle of Jingchu Years Old by Liang Zongmou of the Southern Dynasties said: "On July 7th, it was a woman of Xijia family, who was wearing a colorful building with seven holes, or with gold and silver as needles." "Geographical Records" 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 "Kaiyuan Tianbao Legacy" said: "On 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 home of the natives is effective. " Yuan Taozong 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 a gift. "
2, drying books, drying clothes According to records, Sima Yi was quite suspicious of Cao Cao because of his high status and great power. Since he pretended to be crazy at home to protect himself. Wei Wudi was still worried, so he sent a close friend to do a secret investigation. 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 by wandering around the world. 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 customs and tell you!" " From these short stories, we can see how prosperous the custom of drying books and clothes on Tanabata is.
Raising children is an ancient custom. A few days before Tanabata, a layer of soil was first applied to a small wooden board, and seeds of millet were planted to make it grow green seedlings, and then some huts and flowers were placed on it to make it look like a small village, called "shell board", or mung beans, adzuki beans, wheat and so on. Soak in a magnetic bowl, then it will grow into a few inches of buds and then turn red. 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".
It should be smart to love spiders. This is also an earlier way to please. Its custom is a little later than threading needles, probably starting in the Southern and Northern Dynasties. Liang Zonggu of the Southern Dynasties said "A Record of Jingchu Times"; "In the evening, Chen Guaguo begged for cleverness in court. If you have a happy subnet on melon, you think it is corresponding. " 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. " China in Tokyo, written by Meng Yuanyuan, a poet of the Song Dynasty, said that on the seventh day of July, "Put a spider in the zygote and watch it every other day. If the net is round, it is just a coincidence. " Song Zhou Mi's "When I was one year old" said; "How long does it take to store small spiders in the house and wait for the density of the net?" Tomita Rucheng's "Joy of the Xi Tide" said that on Tanabata, "It is very clever to put spiders in a small box and see 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.
5. Throwing needles for skills This is a variant of the custom of threading needles for skills on Qixi Festival, which originated from threading needles and is different from threading needles. This is a popular Valentine's Day custom in China during the Ming and Qing Dynasties. In the Ming Dynasty, Dong Liu and Yu Yizheng said in A Brief Introduction to the Scenery of the Imperial Capital, "On the afternoon of July 7th, I lost my magic 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 7th, women begged for cleverness, threw needles into the water, took the shadow of the sun to inspect the work, and still begged for cleverness at night". Please quote ten thousand miscellanies in An Examination of Old News in the Sun: "On July 7th, a woman in Yan Dou threw a small needle into the water with a bowl of 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. "
6. Sacrifice to "Moeli" Moeli is a children's plaything on Valentine's Day in China in the old society, that is, a small clay doll. Its image is mostly a lotus leaf half-arm skirt, holding 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.
7. Worship the Weaver Girl "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 was held in the moonlight, with tea and wine on the table. Fruits, five sons (longan, red dates, hazelnuts, peanuts, melon seeds) and other sacrifices; 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.
8. Children will pick wild flowers and hang them on their horns on Tanabata, which is called "Happy Birthday" (it is said that Tanabata is the birthday of cattle).
9. worship kuixing. 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. Walking slowly, I want to dance, fluttering 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, so every year on July 7th, his birthday, scholars should solemnly worship.