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The Chinese Valentine’s Day

Highlights

It´s Chinese Valentine´s Day today

It´s Chinese Valentine´s Day today

According to ancient Chinese mythology the Cowherd and the Weaver Maid, lovers separated by the Queen Mother of the Western Heavens, can only meet tonight.And thanks to the myth´s touching story many Chinese now regard "Qixi" the evening of July 7 in the Chinese lunar calendar as the Chinese Valentine´s Day.

Chinese valentines

Chinese valentines

Just like the Valentine´s Day in the West, China also has a day devoted to love. Qi Xi Festival, or the seventh eve of the seventh month on the Lunar calenda, falls on the 31st of July this year. There may not be chocolate or cards, but the Chinese have many charming customs associated with this romantic day for lovers.

The Love Story

The story of Chinese valentine´s day

The story of Chinese valentine´s day

Chinese Valentine´s Day is on the 7th day of the 7th lunar month in the Chinese calendar. A love story for this day is about the 7th daughter of Emperor of Heaven and an orphaned cowherd. The Emperor separated them. The 7th daughter was forced to move to the star Vega and the cowherd moved to the star Altair.

The Festival

The Festival

The Festival

On the Chinese Valentine´s Day, people in love like to go to the temple of Matchmaker and pray for their love and the possible marriage in China. People still single will do the same thing to ask their luck of love in the Matchmaker temple. The Chinese Valentine´s Day is also called The Daughter´s Festival.

The Stars

The Stars
The star Vega (Weaving Maid) is the 5th brightest star in the sky. Therefore, it´s very easy to find in the summer night. The size of Vega is 16 times bigger than the Sun. The temperature on its surface is more than 10,000 degrees. The brightness of Vega is 25 times brighter than the Sun. It´s 25 light years away from the Earth.

The Chinese Calendar

What was the Early Chinese calendar?
Evidence from the Shang oracle bone inscriptions shows that at least by the 14th century BC the Shang Chinese had established the solar year at 365 1/4 days and lunation at 29 1/2 days. In the calendar that the Shang used, the seasons of the year and the phases of the Moon were all supposedly accounted for. In China, the calendar was a sacred document, sponsored and promulgated by the reigning monarch. For more than two millennia, a Bureau of Astronomy made astronomical observations, calculated astronomical events such as eclipses, prepared astrological predictions, and maintained the calendar.

The Origin Of Saint Valentines Day

Who was Saint Valentine?
What is the origin of our Saint Valentine´s Day ? Just who was Saint Valentine, the patron saint of lovers? This was in honor of the Roman festival of purification februa held on February 15th, their Lupercalia, commemorating young men´s rite of passage to their God of fertility Lupercus, who watched over the shepherds of Rome against a predatory lupus or wolf.

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