Cupid was out and about yesterday, busy shooting his arrows into hundreds of thousands of Chinese hearts for a day known as Qixi Festival (七夕節), the Chinese equivalent of Valentine’s Day.
Long tale short, a weaver fairy from the sky (where else?) and a cattle herder boy are in love. Predictably, of course, it’s a forbidden love.
Obviously, the myth would not leave us with an anticlimactic ending like, “and nothing ever happened between them”. So, every year, for one day only, a flock of magpies would form a bridge to romantically reunite the two.
This day (which occurred yesterday this year ) is referred to as the Double Seventh Festival – presumably named so because it occurs on the seventh day of the seventh month in the lunar calendar.
Now influenced by the practices of Western Valentine’s Day, the Double Seventh Festival lures lovers to send each other cutesy notes, fragrant flowers and diet-breaking chocolates. Yet there are some homegrown traditions that have not been simultaneously adopted by the West.
Fireflies are now also given as a tokens of love in China. Yesterday, Al Jazeera reported that more than 10 million fireflies were bought online in 2015. Taobao.com alone has 30+ shops offering firefly products, with some selling jars containing 55 fireflies (although there is no guarantee the insects survive the shipping).
There’s no better way to say, “Babe, you light my fire” than giving a jar of dead insects.
Considering that even Bon Jovi made a tribute to the Double Seventh Festival – by releasing a video of the band singing the mandarin lyrics of Taiwanese love song, “The Moon Represents My Heart” in anticipation of his upcoming Asia tour – it’s a bit surprising that Valentines Day wasn’t more widely (or at least more obviously) celebrated yesterday in Hong Kong.
Chinese Hong Kong masters student Kiwiya said, “I don’t think Hong Kong people celebrate this festival as much as mainlanders do.”
She seems to be right. As far as we can tell, there were no mass blind dating events, kissing contests nor offers of fake boyfriends or girlfriends for hire available to Hong Kong singles, unlike the situation in Chinese cities, as the Telegraph reports.
Kiwiya further shared, “News and stories about Qixi are flooding the internet in the mainland, everybody’s posting – mostly single people showing how pathetic they are – faced with the happy couples”.
For those who are loved up, like Lili from Fujian, however, the festival provides a rare opportunity for romance and fantasy.
“I spent Qixi festival at home… looking for the magpie bridge [to my] cowherd”, she said.
Next year do the same or celebrate Hong Kong style by heading over to Lover’s Rock on Bowen’s Road.
Photos: B Rosen via Flickr
