According to a Chinese legend, long ago, a fairy named Zhinv came down to Earth for fun and fell in love with Niulang, a mortal cowherd. Zhinv then decided to stay in the human world to live an ordinary, happy life with Niulang. But love between gods and mortals is not permitted, and for this, the two were punished. Niulang and Zhinv were separated on either side of the Milky Way and were never reunited.
Fortunately, perhaps moved by their loyal love, seventy thousand magpies built a beautiful bridge with their own bodies on the seventh day of the seventh month of the Chinese lunar calendar, so that Niulang and Zhinv could meet again on the bridge.
The Queen Mother, seeing this scene, allowed them to meet on the bridge formed by the magpies on that same day every year. For this reason, the Qixi Festival has become the most romantic of all traditional Chinese festivals.
The Chinese have many customs to celebrate the festival. One of them is exposing a book to the sun. The custom of exposing books and clothes to the sun was extremely popular during the Ming and Qing dynasties. On this day, the most common activity is needlework. Women make various handmade works, one of the most typical being the Qixi tribute. This type of work integrates traditional techniques such as carving, painting, and gluing, and the entire process is manual. Each stitch is handmade and requires hard work, but it also has great ornamental and artistic value.
Threading a needle and praying for intelligence is another very popular activity during the festival. In the afternoon of this day, women arrange fruit on the table, holding five-colored silk threads and a needle with several continuous holes, and continuously thread needles under the moonlight.
Another custom is to throw lanterns into the river. People do this because they fear that the herdsman would not be able to see the Magpie Bridge in the dark of night.
Even today, the Qixi Festival remains important to Chinese people. Lovers celebrate it as "Chinese Valentine's Day."