Does the Cowherd and Weaver Girl really meet every Chinese Valentine s Day?

The Cowherd and the Weaver Girl is one of the four major folk love legends of the Han Chinese people (the other three are "The Legend of the White Snake", "Meng Jiangnu Crying on the Great Wall", "Liang Shanbo and Zhu Yingtai"), and the festival related to this legend is the Qixi Festival.

As the earliest story about stars in Chinese. There is such a paragraph in Ren Fang's "Narrative of Differences" in the Northern and Southern Dynasties: "In the east of the great river, there is a beautiful woman, who is the son of the Emperor of Heaven, a female worker of the machine, working hard every year, weaving into a cloud and mist silk cloth, hard work is not happy, the appearance is not flawless, the Emperor of Heaven pities his solitude, marries the morning glory in Hexi as his wife, and since then the work of weaving has been abolished, and the greed and joy do not return."

The emperor is angry, blames Hedong, and meets once a year. ”

In 2008, the legend of the Cowherd and the Weaver Girl was included in the national intangible cultural heritage list.

This is just a legend, but even though it's a legend, it's still worth believing, and even if you don't believe it, let's take it as a beautiful myth.

Tanabata Cowherd and Vega cannot meet.

When you are enjoying the shade outdoors on a summer night, you can see a bright star above your head, and there are four small stars next to it, like a shuttle weaving cloth, which is Vega. Across the Milky Way, there is a bright star in the southeast, and a small star on each side, that is, the Cowherd Star, across the river from Vega.

Myths are myths after all, and it is impossible for the Cowherd and the Weaver Girl to meet overnight. Cowherd and Vega are both very distant stars, both of which are larger than the Sun, just because they are very far away from us.

In astronomy, the distance between stars is mostly measured in "light years". A light-year is the distance traveled by sunlight traveling 300,000 kilometers per second in one year. The Cowherd is 16 light-years away from us, and the Vega is 27 light-years away, so it looks like a small point of light.

The distance between the Cowherd Star and the Vega Star is also very far, there are light years, and the distance between the Cowherd Star and the Earth is about the same, even if the Cowherd runs fast, he can run 100 kilometers a day, and it will take 4.3 billion years to meet the Weaver Girl. Even if it were to be changed to a spaceship that flew 11 kilometers per second, it would take 450,000 years to fly to the Weaver Girl. Don't say that they meet overnight, even if they make a **, it will take years to reach each other.

Inheritance significance. The legend of "The Cowherd and the Weaver Girl" originated and formed in Lushan, and the local Cowherd and Weaver Girl culture retains its original appearance. The earliest Ming Jiajing chronicles and the gazetteers of cities, counties and townships are recorded.

Lufeng Mountain of Lushan is a unique peak, it is said to be the place where the Cowherd grazes, the first of the eight ancient views of Lushan, the Cowherd Cave under the mountain is the place where the Cowherd and the Weaver Girl meet, the descendants of the Cowherd often kneel in front of the Cowherd Cave and worship their ancestors.

The beggar of the Nine Women's Temple, the begging customs of the Qixi Festival, the eavesdropping custom under the grape trellis, the ancient temple fair of Qixi Festival in Xinji Township, Lushan County, the silkworm weaving in the mountainous area, the farmers' respect for the cow, the stark contrast between the ban on the performance of "Tianhe" in Sunyi Village, the hometown of the Cowherd, and the singing of the Cowherd and the Weaver Girl opera in other villages, etc., all show the cultural foundation of the story of the Cowherd and the Weaver Girl in Lushan, and the people of Lushan have firmly believed that this is a real and beautiful story for thousands of years.

On the slope of Lu Mountain, even the Milky Way in the sky, the cow girl comes to meet, there is a lot of happiness in the world, and the folk songs and ballads about the Cowherd and the Weaver Girl of the Chain Ming are sung for thousands of years, but also retains the original folk culture, adding respect and remembrance to this love story.

The above content reference: Encyclopedia - The Legend of the Cowherd and the Weaver Girl.

Because it's the law. Every year on Qixi Festival, the Cowherd and Vega gather together due to sports. From this law, it is made into a moving story. The Emperor of Heaven will let the two of them get together once a year on Qixi Festival.

Xi Festival, also known as Qiqiao Festival, Seven Sisters Festival, Daughter's Day, Qiqiao Festival, Qi Niang Hui, Qiao Xi, Niu Bull Po Day, Double Seven, etc., is a traditional Chinese folk festival, which is the birthday of the Seven Sisters in the traditional sense. Because the worship of the "Seven Sisters" was held on the seventh day of July, it was named "Qixi Festival". It is the traditional customs of Qixi to worship the Seventh Sister, pray for blessings and wishes, beg for skillful arts, sit and watch the morning glory Vega, pray for marriage and auspiciousness, and store Qixi water.

After historical development, Qixi Festival has been endowed with the beautiful love legend of "Cowherd and Weaver Girl", because it has been endowed with love-related connotations, making it a festival symbolizing love, which is considered to be the most romantic traditional festival of the Chinese people, and has produced the cultural meaning of "Chinese Valentine's Day" in contemporary times.