The Chinese Valentine's Day

Mary, a 28-year-old office worker, still expresses excitement when recalling her last unforgettable Double Seventh Night Festival."One day in August of last year, when I was about to get off work, my boyfriend phoned and asked me whether I remembered what particular date it was."Scanning her personal calendar in the computer on which she had noted all her important dates, such as her boyfriend's birthday and anniversary, she found nothing. "You will know what it is when I come to pick you up after work,"he said, explaining no more. After a bit of doubt and speculation, they finally met and he declared, "Today is Double Seventh Night Festival, China's Valentine's Day."Receiving a necklace as a gift, Mary was impressed. "I really didn't pay much attention to this Double Seventh Night Festival before. Seems I've taken an advantage, for now we can have another day especially for lovers. Now my boyfriend is my husband, and this year it is my turn to give him a surprise,"she says.

This year the romantic couples of China get lucky; they can jointly celebrate three Valentine's Day-something that only happens once every 38 years. Besides the Western-style Valentine's Day, a leap seventh lunar month to reconcile the lunar year with the solar year provides another two Double Seventh Night Festivals. In China, the seventh day of the seventh month of the lunar year (in August or September), generally referred to as Double Seventh Night, is one of the most romantic of traditional Chinese festivals. The festival began with a legend. A weaving maid, the daughter of the Jade Emperor, ventured to the world of mortals. She fell in love with a cow herder, took him as husband, and later gave birth to both a boy and a girl. At first the family lived happily together, however, the Queen Mother of the Western Heaven learned of the arrangement and became angry. She descended from heaven and brought the weaving maid home. Having no way to get to heaven, the cow herder was forced into a separation from his wife. At this an old ox raised by the cow herder told its master that after its death, its skin could be used to make a pair of shoes. Wearing this pair of shoes, the ox said, his master could ascend to heaven. Following the ox's instructions, after the bovine's passing the cow herder made and put on the shoes, then took his children into his arms and ascended to heaven. But before he could reach his wife, the Queen Mother of the Western Heaven plucked a gold pin from her hair and with it drew a line in the sky. Suddenly a celestial river appeared, separating the cow herder from his wife. However, their love moved the Jade Emperor, pity stirred in his heart and he declared that every year, on the seventh night of the seventh lunar month, the two could meet. On that day, thousands of magpies took to the sky to form a bridge over the Milky Way, and the couple would meet in the middle of the bridge.
Later, on the seventh night of the seventh lunar month, the day the cow herder and weaving maid would meet on the magpie bridge, girls would look at the sky to search for the Altair, the star of the cow herder, and Vega, the star of the weaving maid, hoping to see their annual meeting and wishing they themselves would be as skillful in hand as the weaving maid and enter a happy marriage. Lovers would also pray under the starry night for a conjugal felicity. Thus, the occasion became a festival.

Nowadays, with China becoming increasingly internationalized, with sweet dumplings for the Lantern Festival having chocolate as stuffing, Western-style Valentine's Day has been generally accepted in the nation. But increasingly young people are paying more attention to the Chinese Valentine's Day of their ancestors.

Compared to Spring Festival, a traditional festival to which most Chinese people attach the greatest of importance, and which emphasizes liveliness and reunion, Valentine's Day, with its target audience mainly made up of youngsters in China, hopes to create a honey and sweet atmosphere. Double Seventh Night Festival, Chinese people's own Valentine, besides sweetness, has a hint of nostalgia for the past.

Liu Hao, with the China International Exhibition Center, has his own reasons for preferring the Double Seventh Night Festival over Western Valentine's Day. He says that since Western Valentine's Day often occurs during Spring Festival, the atmosphere is more or less overshadowed by the more important traditional festival. And since Spring Festival period is a time for family members to gather, Liu is not able to celebrate the Valentine"Day with his girl friend in another city. Thus, since last year the couple began to celebrate the Double Seventh Night Festival instead of Valentine's Day.

The main motivation for today's youngsters to celebrate the Double Seventh Night Festival is for them to remind themselves that our Chinese ancestors had such a romantic festival. They hope that something new and fresh would be added by a traditional Chinese romantic day,"says Li Xiaofeng, a student in East China Normal University. Students are one of the major groups for the Double Seventh Night Festival in China. This year Li even returned to his university several days before the summer vacation ended to prepare for the day. "Double Seventh Night Festival has more cultural connotations, as compared to Western Valentine's Day. And compared to Spring Festival, there are more emphases on individuality."The popularity of Double Seventh Night Festival among Chinese youngsters delivers a message that China's younger generation is more than ever paying attention to personal emotions while thinking how best to express those feelings."Affected by the happy atmosphere of Christmas, we might go out to dance and sing, but that's all. Christmas and Western Valentine's Day is just a reason for me to have a spree. We (Chinese) can hardly understand the deeper connotation of Western festivals. At many times, our understanding of the Western Valentine's Day is limited to roses and chocolates,"says 26-year-old Li Shanshan, who is in the film and television production trade in Beijing.

Recently, Professor Wan Jianzhong, of the Beijing Normal University, with several of his students surveyed of more than 100 people of varying ages and social status. The primary survey question was:"Of the following ten festivals, such as Spring Festival, the Mid-Autumn Festival, Christmas and Western Valentine's Day, which festival do you most want to observe""That question was put to the 100, nearly 70 percent of who were young people. Wan was surprised to discover the many respondents actually wrote down "Double Seventh Night Festival"in the blank space beside Western Valentine's Day. Some even crossed out Western Valentine's Day and made notes: "We have our own festival for lovers."Nearly 60 percent indicated that in the past two years they have arranged some activities especially for Double Seventh Night Festival, such as dining out, watching movies, or watching celestial phenomena.