Qi xi jie --- A Chinese Valentine's Day

The Qi Xi Jie occurs on the 7th Day of the 7th Month of the Chinese Calendar.

As any Chinese grandmother will tell you, the ancient celebration of true love dates back centuries when Zhinv (织女 Weaving Girl) fell in love with a young farmer named Niulang(牛郎 cow boy) at NanYang, HuBei province. Sadly, there is a classic complication - our heroine here is the granddaughter of the Lady Queen WangWuNiangNiang!


Even though the law strictly forbids relationships between mortals and immortals, the rebellious young couple fall in love and eventually marry anyway - when the unthinkable happens, and they has a girl and a boy. Upon the discovery of their relationship, the Lady Queen WangWuNiangNiang forces Zhinv to return to heaven, never to see Niulang again.


But Niulang refuses to give up. He was helped by a old cow, flies to Zhinv's side (with the help of a magic ox) only to have the Lady Queen WangWuNiangNiang then uses a hairpin to draw the Milky Way across the sky to separate the couple forever.

And after that Zhinv and Niulang must separated for 364 days of a year - except for Chinese Valenine's Day - when the Lady Queen WangWuNiangNiang takes pity on them by sending a flock of magpies to bridge the gap between the lovers and reunite them. (and then magpies was seemed as a bode well to lovers and couples)

In Chinese, "7" pronounced Qi, and this pronounciation also means "fantastic", so "the 7th Day of the 7th Month" is the most fantastic day in the year, so an old times, In the night of Qi xi jie, girls and ladys gazing stars and prays to be smart and skillful, and prays for a happy marriage.

This folktale was started about 2000 years before at Han Dynaty.

Today, on Chinese Valentine's Day, school children are asked to search the heavens where Zhinv can be found in the star Vega east of the Milky Way, and for her beloved Niulang, who steadfastly waits for her in the constellation Aquila, west of the Milky Way.

According to legend, on Chinese Valentines Day magpies can scarcely be seen, since they are spreading their wings to form the bridge in the heavens to reunite the couple once again. The evening of Chinese Valentine's Day is traditionally reserved for star gazing, and the classic retelling of the tale of Zhinu and Niulang.



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The Lantern Festival

The Lantern Festival, which occurs on the 15-th day of the First Month of the Chinese Year, marks the end of the Chinese Spring Festival.

Yuanxiao is the special food for the Lantern Festival. It is believed that Yuanxiao is named after a palace maid, Yuanxiao, of Emperor Wu Di of the Han Dynasty.


Yuanxiao is a kind of sweet dumpling, which is made with sticky rice flour filled with sweet stuffing. And the Festival is named after the famous dumpling. It is very easy to cook - simply dump them in a pot of boiling water for a few minutes - and eaten as a desert.

Lantern Riddles
Lanterns are everywhere. A most interesting tradition is the posting of riddles called 'Lantern Riddles.' Riddles are written on pieces of paper and posted on lanterns or wall. Any one solving the riddle is awarded a prize.

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Spring Festival

Similar to the importance of the Christmas Day for the westerners, the Spring Festival is the most important celebration for Chinese people. Although the meaning and the methods of celebration of the Spring Festival maybe changing, the important status of the Spring Festival is incomparable.

Chinese Spring Festival has a long history, which is nearly four thousand years old. Initially, the festival had no name or fixed date However, people called Spring Festival "the age" according to the revolution period of Jupiter by B.C. 2100. Before B.C. 1000, people used "the year", which means "Great Harvest" representing the Spring Festival.

According to the traditional custom, the Spring Festival lasts from the 23rd day of 12th lunar month to the 15th day of 1st lunar month, and the climax should be the New Year Eve and the first day of first lunar month.

Actually, in ancient China, the first day of new year was called "Yuan Dan", which means "the first sun rise", but when China begin use International Calendar, "Yuan Dan" was used to called the first day of International Calendar, so the first of Chinese new year was renamed to "Spring Festival".


People carry out a lot of activities all over the country to welcome the Spring Festival. In the countryside, this kind of preparation starts from the beginning of 12th lunar month. All the families clean their houses, wash their clothes and bed sheets. Fresh new clothes and sheets commemorate the fresh New Year! Special New Year purchases are also important parts of upcoming New Year. In the city, they celebrate the New Year with art teams performances, various entertainment parties, and the big parks hold "temple fairs" to provide, recreation, food and art!.

There are different traditional customs in different parts of China, but the whole family having reunion dinner together in the New Year Eve is indispensable. In the South China, the reunion dinner usually has more than ten meals including bean curd and fish, because the pronunciation of these two meals means "wealthy" in Chinese language. In the North China, most of the reunion meals are dumplings, which are made and eaten by the whole family.

Usually stay up late and set off fireworks on New Year's Eve. By the first day of first lunar month, people are wearing festival dresses and begin to visit or welcome family, friends and loved ones. They greet each other "Happy New Year" and "Happy Spring Festival" and invite guests to drink tea and chat at their home.

There are a plethora of activities during the Spring Festival including opera and movie performances lion dances and temple fairs. There are also people who prefer to stay at home and watch television. Pasting New Year scrolls and watching festive lanterns are also the traditional movements for the Spring Festival celebration.

The ways of Spring Festival celebration are changing along with the standard of living. For instance, traveling has becoming a new fashion of Spring Festival celebration.
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The Twenty-four JieQi

As we know, Chinese Calendar mostly a lunar calendar, and based on lunar movement, so a day in Chinese Calendar can not simply translated to a International Calendar day. But the seasons changing according to the Sun, so ancient Chinese introduce Jieqi or the Twenty-four Solar Terms, this is a unique cultural heritage created and passed down for about 2000 years.



In modern science, Jieqi actually are defined by a solar calendar system and divides a year into twenty four parts of equal lengths according to the positions of the sun when it travels on the ecliptic longitude. The sun's path comprises twenty four divisions, each of which measures 15 celestial degrees. The sun starts from the Vernal Equinox—0 degree of celestial longitude, where the direct rays of the sun would always shine on the equator, that is, the angle of the incidence at the earth would be 90 degrees—and returns to the same point after making one revolution around the celestial globe. Such a 360-degree journey is called a solar year and each part of 15 degrees a jieqi. There are twenty-four jieqis altogether.


Jieqi reflection season-changing and is a guide to agricultural arrangements, the Terms hold an influence upon the daily lives of Chinese people in many ways. It is along the Yellow River Valley that the concepts of jieqis have been established on the basis of the valley's weather patterns and other natural phenomena—a result of the valley's role as China's political center for two thousand years. Since China has a vast territory and a varied terrain, the Twenty-four jieqis are just referential to other parts of the country. Some jieqi had also become festival, like Pure Brightness(清明) and the Winter Solstice(冬至).

The origin of jieqies

Even in the Spring-Autumn and the Warring States period, Chinese had the concepts that the sun appears at different positions. Later on they studied the links between the natural laws of life and the positions of the sun and the moon at the beginning or the end of a month, thus dividing the year into several parts which equal one another. Each part was given a specific name, and they were called jieqis in general.

Eight jieqis were mentioned in the Spring and Autumn Annals of Lord Lu Buwei(吕氏春秋), a book compiled in the late part of the Warring States period. They were lichun (The Beginning of Spring), chunfen (The Spring Equinox or The Vernal Equinox), lixia (The Beginning of Summer), xiazhi (The Summer Solstice), liqiu (The Beginning of Autumn), qiufen (The Autumn Equinox), lidong (The Beginning of Winter), and dongzhi (The Winter Solstice). These eight terms were regarded as the most important, for they accurately mark the change of seasons, thus serving as the clear divisions of a year. It was in the book of Master Huainan(淮南子) that the whole system of the Twenty-four jieqis were finally decided upon.

Jieqi was called qi in ancient China. Then in each month there were often two solar terms of qis; the first one was generally named 'jieqi' and the other 'zhongqi'. Their dates are mirrored by the Gregorian calendar(because Gregorian calendar is a solar calendar), so we find that during the first half of a year 'jieqi' is around the 6th day of a solar month, and 'zhongqi' around the 21st; in the second half of a year, 'jieqi' is around the 8th and 'zhongqi' around the 23rd.

These solar terms have meaningful titles. Some of them reflect the change of seasons such as the Beginning of Spring, the Beginning of Summer, the Beginning of Autumn, and the Beginning of Winter; some embody the phenomena of climate like the Waking of Insects (Jingzhe), Pure Brightness (Qingming), Lesser Fullness of Grain (Xiaoman) and Grain in Ear (Mangzhong); and some indicate the change of climate like Rain Water (Yu Shui), Grain Rain (Gu Yu), Lesser Heat (Xiao Shu), Greater Heat (Da Shu)，lesser Cold (xiaohan), Greater Cold (dahan). Most Chinese can remember these names by "Solar Terms songs".


立春 the Beginning of Spring (1st solar term)

雨水 Rain Water (2nd solar term)

惊蛰 the Waking of Insects (3rd solar term)

春分 the Spring Equinox (4th solar term)

清明 Pure Brightness (5th solar term)

谷雨 Grain Rain (6th solar term)

立夏 the Beginning of Summer (7th solar term)

小满 Lesser Fullness of Grain (8th solar term)

芒种 Grain in Ear (9th solar term)

夏至 the Summer Solstice (10th solar term)

小暑 Lesser Heat (11th solar term)

大暑 Greater Heat (12th solar term)

立秋 the Beginning of Autumn (13th solar term)

处暑 the End of Heat (14th solar term)

白露 White Dew (15th solar term)

秋分 the Autumnal Equinox (16th solar term)

寒露 Cold Dew (17th solar term)

霜降 Frost's Descent (18th solar term)

立冬 the Beginning of Winter (19th solar term)

小雪 Lesser Snow (20th solar term)

大雪 Greater Snow (21st solar term)

冬至 the Winter Solstice (22nd solar term)

小寒 Lesser Cold (23rd solar term)

大寒 Greater Cold (24th solar term)
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Chinese calendar

Chinese calendar has been in continuous use for more than 2000 years, old folks says it was start from Xia Dynasty, which was 2200BC to 1600BC. Chinese calendar predates the International Calendar (based on the Gregorian Calendar) we use at the present day which goes back only some 425 years.


The calendar measures time, from short durations of minutes and hours, to intervals of time measured in months, years and centuries, entirely based on the astronomical observations of the movement of the Sun, Moon and stars.


There are three ways to name a Chinese year:

1, By an animal . 2008 is known as the Year of the Rat.
There are 12 animal names; so by this system, year names are re-cycled every 12 years. More.

2, By its Formal Name (Stem-Branch).
This year is the year of Wu Zhi. In the 'Stem-Branch' system(it's another big topic), the years are named in 60-year cycles, and the Name of the Year is repeated every 60 years.
2008 is the 9th year in the current 60-year cycle.

3, Current year is Year 4705 by the Chinese calendar. this was believe begin from "Huang Di" or " Yellow Emperor", The father of Chinese civilization.
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