The Origin of Qixi Festival

August 17, 2023•3 minute read

Qixi Festival, formerly known as Qiqiao Festival. It is originated in the Han Dynasty. In the “Xijing Miscellaneous Notes” written by Ge Hong in the Eastern Jin Dynasty, there is a record that “Han colored women often wear seven-hole needles in the Kaijin Building on July 7th, and everyone learns about it“. The earliest record of Qiqiao seen in ancient literature.

“Qixi” originated from people’s worship of nature. According to historical documents, at least three or four thousand years ago, with people’s understanding of astronomy and the production of textile technology, there were records about Altair Vega. People’s worship of stars is far more than Altair and Vega. They believe that there are seven stars representing directions in the east, west, north, south, collectively known as the twenty-eight constellations. Among them, the Big Dipper is the brightest, which can be used to distinguish directions at night. The first star of the Big Dipper is called Kuixing, also known as the leader. Later, with the imperial examination system, the number one scholar in the middle school was called “Da Kui Tian Xia Shi“, and scholars called Qixi Festival “Kuixing Festival“, also known as “Book Sunning Festival“, which kept the earliest traces that Qixi Festival originated from star worship.

“Qixi” also comes from ancient people’s worship of time. “Seven” is the same as “period“, and both the month and the day are “seven”, giving people a sense of time. The ancient Chinese called the sun, the moon and the five planets of water, fire, wood, gold and earth together as “Qiyao“. The number of sevens in folk performance is staged in time, and when calculating time, “seven to seven” is often the final outcome. When the old Beijing built a Taoist temple for the dead, it was often completed by completing the “July 7th“. Calculating the current “week” with “Nichiyo” still has reservations in Japanese. “Seven” is homonymous with “auspicious“, and “Qiqi” also means double auspiciousness, which is an auspicious day. In Taiwan, July is known as the month of “happy with auspiciousness“. Because the shape of Xi character in cursive script is like “seven seven” written consecutively, seventy-seven years old is also called “Xi Shou“.

“Qixi” is also a phenomenon of number worship. Ancient folks added the multiples of the first month, March 3rd, May 5th, July 7th, and September 9th, which indicated a double and June 6th. These “sevenfolds” are all listed as auspicious days. “Seven” is the number of beads in each column of the abacus, which is romantic and rigorous, giving people a mysterious beauty. “Qi” has the same pronunciation as “wife”, so Qixi Festival has become a festival related to women to a large extent.