China's love stories are mostly tragedies, such as butterfly lovers, Xu Xian and the White Snake, Dong Yong and the Seven Fairies, Cowherd and Weaver Girl, Meng Jiangnv and Wan Xiliang. Most people have good wishes, but no husband and wife are happy in marriage, and they all end in sadness. China's feudal culture fetters these pursuits of love, and folklore also twists and turns to express the pursuit of direct and unrestrained love. This also shows from the side how much harm cultural imprisonment has done to the people. The creation of foot-binding makes people restless, leaving a gap and pinning their hopes on the gods. Renaissance can lead the progress of an era. I hope that our current folk stories have the natural inspiration of love as oxygen, and directly express the pursuit of life and love. Folk custom is an accidental reflection of history, culture, economy and politics at that time. If some legends are deliberately written, it is difficult to spread to the world for a long time, because folk power is like a big filter, which can always stop the expression of non-public opinion. This kind of power is invisible, and it also makes all kinds of dross have no shield to escape. Only by carefully studying or reflecting on the manifestations of folk culture can we truly reflect the original face of that period of history.
Tanabata is called Valentine's Day in China. Although quoting stories is a bit far-fetched, it always expresses people's yearning for beautiful love. I hope the end of the story can be changed to July 7. The magpie built a magpie bridge for the cowherd and the weaver girl, let them break through the bondage and come to the world, and fell in love from then on. Maybe this Tanabata is perfect enough, and its meaning will be just right. So, what if we untie the tightly bound cultural ropes? The times are progressing, and we should also integrate it into folk culture. If Tanabata becomes China's Valentine's Day, everything will be fine, and all shall be well.
Attached is a text about Qixi folk custom collected on the Internet.
In China, on the night of the seventh day of the seventh lunar month, the weather is warm and the plants are fragrant. This is commonly known as China Valentine's Day, and some people call it "Begging for Clevership Festival" or "Daughter's Day". It is the most romantic festival among the traditional festivals in China and the most important day for girls in the past.
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. 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 goddess 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.
Qixi Qiqiao originated in the Han Dynasty. Ge Hong's Miscellaneous Notes on Xijing in the Eastern Jin Dynasty records that "women in the Han Dynasty often wear seven-hole needles on July 7 in the building, and everyone wears them", which is the earliest record of begging for cleverness in ancient literature we have seen. In later Tang and Song poems, women's begging for cleverness was repeatedly mentioned. In the Tang Dynasty, Wang Jian wrote a poem "The stars are bright and the pearls are bright, and Gong E is busy begging for cleverness". According to "The Legacy of Kaiyuan Tianbao", every time Emperor Taizong and his concubines held a banquet in the Qing Palace on Tanabata, the ladies-in-waiting begged with their own ingenuity. This custom is also enduring among the people and passed down from generation to generation.
During the Song and Yuan Dynasties, Qiaqiao was quite grand, and there was also a market in Beijing that monopolized Qiaqiao goods, which was called Qiaqiao City by the world. Song He's series "Talking about Drunken Weng" said: "Tanabata, the property is a gimmick. From July 1 ST, horses and chariots were swallowed, and three days before Chinese Valentine's Day, horses and chariots were not allowed to pass, and they stopped driving again and again until the night. " Here, we can infer the lively scene of the Jocci Festival from the grand occasion of buying Qiao Qi goods from Qiao Qi. People have been putting up flattering articles since the first day of July, and people are coming and going in the flattering market. By the time of Tanabata, the market of Qiqiao was already crowded with people, as if it were the biggest festival-Spring Festival, which showed that Qiqiao Festival was one of the favorite festivals of the ancients.
The most common custom of Valentine's Day in China is all kinds of begging activities carried out by women on the evening of July 7th.
Most girls try their best to make small things and put some melons and fruits on them. Different regions have different ways to please others, and each has its own interests.
Begging activities in Jinan, Huimin, Gaoqing and other places in Shandong are very simple, just showing melons and fruits for begging. If there are cobwebs on melons and fruits, begging is very skillful. However, in Juancheng, Cao Xian, Pingyuan and other places, the custom of eating clever rice and begging for cleverness is very interesting: seven good girls collect food and vegetables, wrap jiaozi, and wrap a copper coin, a needle and a red date into three jiaozi respectively. After begging for wisdom, they got together to eat jiaozi. It is said that they are rich, make good use of needle and thread, and marry early with dates.
In some places, the Begging for Clevership Festival is of a competitive nature, similar to the ancient custom of fighting wisdom. Modern people are used to piercing needles, steaming and branding fruits skillfully, and some places also make clever bud soup. Generally, a handful of grains are soaked in water at the beginning of July, and the buds are cut to make soup on Tanabata. Children in this area pay special attention to eating smart buds, and decorations made of dough sculpture, paper-cutting and colored embroidery are the evolution of the custom of fighting smart buds. The shepherd boy will pick wild flowers and hang them on the horns on Tanabata, which is called "Happy Birthday to the Cow" (it is said that Tanabata is the birthday of the Cow).
Zhucheng, tengxian and Zouxian call the rain on Tanabata "acacia rain" or "acacia tears" because it is caused by the meeting of cowherd and weaver girl. Legend has it that there are very few magpies in Jiaodong and Southwest Shandong, and they have all gone to build a magpie bridge.
Today, there are still similar begging customs in various parts of Zhejiang. For example, in Hangzhou, Ningbo, Wenzhou and other places, on this day, all kinds of small objects are made of flour and fried in oil, which is called "Tuoguo". At night, Tuoguo, lotus, white lotus root and Hong Ling are displayed in the yard. The girl put a needle on the moon and begged the Weaver Girl to give her a clever skill, or caught a spider and put it in a box. If you open the box the next day, it's called cleverness.
In the countryside of Shaoxing, there will be many young girls hiding under the lush pumpkin shed that night. If you can hear the whispers when the cowherd and the weaver girl meet in the dead of night, the girl to be married will definitely get this eternal love in the future.
In order to express people's hope that the Cowherd and the Weaver Girl can live a happy family life every day, in Jinhua, Zhejiang Province, every family will kill a chicken on July 7, which means that the Cowherd and the Weaver Girl will meet on this night, and if there is no rooster to announce the dawn, they will never part.
In the west of Guangxi, it is said that on the morning of July 7th, a fairy will come down to the earth to take a bath, and drinking its bath water can ward off evil spirits, cure diseases and prolong life. This kind of water is called "Double Seven Water". When chickens crow on this day, people scramble to get water from the river and then take it back and put it in a new urn for future use.
Guangzhou's begging festival is unique. Before the festival comes, the girls prepare colored paper, medulla tetrapanacis, string, etc. in advance and weave them into various fancy gadgets. They also put seeds and mung beans in a small box and soaked them in water to germinate them. Buds grow to more than two inches and are used to worship the gods, which are called "worshipping the immortals" and "worshipping the gods". From the sixth night to the seventh night, the girls put on new clothes and jewelry for two nights in a row. After all the arrangements are made, they burn incense and light candles and bow down to the stars, which is called "welcoming the immortals". From the third night to the fifth watch, they will worship seven times in a row.
After worshipping the immortals, the girls passed through the pinholes with colored threads in their hands. For example, those who can wear seven pinholes in one breath are called skillful hands, and those who can't wear seven pinholes are called skillful hands. After Tanabata, the girls exchanged small crafts and toys to show their friendship.
On Valentine's Day in Fujian and China, Weaver Girl should be allowed to enjoy and taste fruits and vegetables, so that she can wish a bumper harvest of fruits and vegetables in the coming year. The offerings include tea, wine, fresh fruit, five kinds of seeds (longan, red dates, hazelnuts, peanuts and melon seeds), flowers, pollen from female cosmetics and a censer. Generally, after fasting and bathing, everyone takes turns to burn incense and worship God and pray silently. Women not only seek wisdom, but also children, longevity, beauty and love. Then everyone eats fruit, drinks tea and chats, and plays clever games. There are two kinds of begging for wisdom: one is "divination", that is, asking yourself whether you are smart or stupid with divination tools; The other is clever match, that is, whoever wears the needle quickly is clever, and the slow one is called "losing cleverness". People who "lose their intelligence" should prepare some small gifts for smart people.
In some areas, "Seven Sisters Club" was organized, and "Seven Sisters Club" from all over the country gathered in Zongxiang Guild Hall, put on various incense tables, and offered sacrifices to Cowherd and Weaver Maid at a distance. All the "incense tables" are made of paper, and the tables are filled with flowers, fruits, rouge powder, paper floral dresses, shoes, daily necessities and embroidery, and so on. The "Seven Sisters Club" in different regions will work hard on the incense table to see who makes it exquisite. Nowadays, this activity has been forgotten, and only a few ancestral halls still set up incense tables on this festival to worship the cowherd and the weaver girl. Incense tables are usually prepared on the seventh day of July, and at night they begin to plead with the Weaver Girl.
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".
To this day, Tanabata is still a romantic traditional festival. However, many customs have weakened or disappeared, and only the legend of Cowherd and Weaver Girl, which symbolizes loyal love, has been circulated among the people.
Some poems about tanabata.
Anonymous (Chinese)
Distant Altair, Jiao Jiao Hehan girl.
Touch your hand and make a loom.
There is no chapter all day, and tears are pouring down.
The river is clear and shallow, and there are many differences.
Between water and water, there are no words.
Chinese Valentine's Day; Qixi Festival
Yang Pu (Five Dynasties Later Tang Dynasty)
If you don't care, you must ask the weaver girl to get the golden shuttle.
Begging every year is clever with the world, but there are many clever ways.
Chinese Valentine's Day; Qixi Festival
(Tang) Quan Deyu
Today, it is clear that the clouds have crossed the magpie bridge, which should not be in the same strain, a distance.
My family likes to wear makeup mirrors and needles on the ninth night of the next month.
Chinese Valentine's Day; Qixi Festival
(Tang) Xu Ning
Magpie Bridge is vast, and a thousand sounds of Yu Pei pass Lingling.
There are still people who have been away for many years. Instead of tinkering with rivers and lakes, it is better to look up at the stars.
Queqiaoxian
(Song) Qin Guan
Thin clouds are clever, flying stars spread grievances, and yinhan sneaked into Chen Cang.
On the seventh day of autumn dew and autumn, it is time to meet, mostly those who are together in the world, but the appearance of husband and wife.
Tender as water, like a dream, you can go home from the bridge!
If the relationship between two people is long-lasting, it is still a matter of time!
Tanabata Drunk Answer to Dong Jun (Ming) Tang Xianzu
Jade Hall blooms in spring, and the new words sing "Peony Pavilion".
Sadly, no one will pat the whole body and teach Xiaoling by pinching tan marks.
Han Zhuang Kuizhou Mid-Autumn Festival
(Qing) Yao Xie
Mulan paddles the lotus country, and the hall is cool at night.
There is water outside the smoke. Outside the Liusi Lake, the mountain eyebrows are green and yellow.