Different regions have different activities to celebrate the Qixi Festival in ancient times, showing rich and colorful characteristics.
1. In Gudoujing Village, Tanghui Township, Jiaxing, Jiangsu Province, there is the Qixi Festival Fragrant Bridge Party. Every Chinese Valentine's Day, people come to participate and build fragrant bridges. The so-called incense bridge is a bridge about four to five meters long and half a meter wide made of various thick and long incense sticks (thread incense wrapped in paper). It is equipped with railings and tied with five-color threads. Made of flower decoration.
At night, people worship the twin stars, pray for good fortune, and then burn the incense bridge, symbolizing that the twin stars have crossed the incense bridge and met happily. This fragrant bridge is derived from the legendary Magpie Bridge.
2. In Jiaodong area, people worship the Seventh Sister God on Qixi Festival. Young women put on new clothes, gathered together happily, and formed an alliance with the seven sisters in the court. They sang a ballad: "Emperor of Heaven, Emperor of Earth, I invite the seven sisters to go to heaven. I don't care about your needles, I don't care about your threads, but you are seventy-two. Such a good method.
" Many places also make "Qiaohua". Girls use flour to make cakes and buns with flowers such as peony, lotus, plum, orchid and chrysanthemum (or Qiaoguo). There is also Qicai, which is to cultivate malt in a wine cup (this is the "seed growing" in the Song Dynasty), and use Qiao fruits and Qicai to worship the Weaver Girl.
3. In Shaanxi, on the Chinese Valentine's Day, girls will use straw to tie up a one-meter-high "Qiaogu" shape (also called Qiao Niangniang, the Weaver Girl) and let her wear it. Girls in green coats and red skirts sit in the courtyard; the girls offer melons and fruits, and take out the bean sprouts and onion sprouts that have been planted in advance (that is, "seeds", and women call them Qiao sprouts), and cut them off. Cut it into a bowl of clear water, float on the water, and watch the shadow of the buds under the moon.
4. In Fujian, women and girls arrange incense burners and various offerings: tea, wine, flowers in vases, and five seeds (longans, red dates, hazelnuts, peanuts, melon seeds) and weaver girls. of powder. After worshiping the double stars, the powder dedicated to Weaver Girl was divided into two halves, half of which was thrown to the roof for Weaver Girl, and the other half was used to groom and beautify herself.
5. In Guangdong, the people who paid the most attention to the Qixi Festival were in the Qing Dynasty and the Republic of China, and there were many interesting customs spread. Qu Dajun's "Guangdong New Language" has already recorded the grand occasion of the "Qiniang Hui" in the early Qing Dynasty, which is often called "Seventh Sister Worship" among the people. The activity is usually carried out among young girls and young women. A dozen sisters who are close friends are organized in advance to prepare for the "worship of the seventh sister". In June, some rice, wheat grains, mung beans, etc. are soaked in porcelain bowls to let them germinate.
As the Chinese Valentine's Day approaches, we are even busier. We have to raise some money and ask family members to help us build a magpie bridge with bamboo strips and paper and make various exquisite handicrafts. On the night of the Chinese Valentine's Day, the Eight Immortals table is set up in the hall, tied with an embroidered table apron (table skirt), and various colorful flower and fruit products and women's red crafts are placed on it to show off the skills of the daughters.