What was the original prototype of Tanabata?

1. The real meaning is "Qiqiao Festival" and "Daughter's Festival", in our country, on the night of the seventh day of the seventh lunar month, this is commonly known as the Qixi Festival, and some people call it "Qiqiao Festival" or "Daughter's Festival".

2. This is the most romantic festival in traditional Chinese festivals, and it is also the day that girls attach the most importance to in the past. On a clear summer and autumn night, on the east and west banks of the Zhenghe River, there is a shining star on each side, across the river, far away from each other, that is Altair and Vega.

3. Qixi was given the expectation of beautiful love by ancient people. In mythology and legend, the Cowherd and the Weaver Girl meet every year on this night. One night at this feast, the ancient women threaded needles and begged skillfully and held a prayer for blessing and longevity.

4. Worship the Seventh Sister, the ceremony is pious and grand, displaying flowers and fruits, and female red. I hope that I can have a pair of skillful hands like the Weaver Girl, and I look forward to a beautiful marriage.

5. In our country, on the night of the seventh day of the seventh lunar month, the weather is warm, and the grass and trees are fragrant, which is commonly known as the Qixi Festival, and some people also call it the "Qiqiao Festival" or "Daughter's Festival", which is the most romantic festival in the traditional Chinese festivals, and it is also the day that the girls paid the most attention to in the past. On a clear summer and autumn night, the stars are shining in the sky, and a white Milky Way runs through the north and south, and there is a shining star on the east and west banks of the river, looking at each other across the river, far away, that is, Altair and Vega.

6. It is a folk custom to sit and watch the morning glory and the Weaver Girl on Qixi Festival, and according to legend, on this night every year, it is the time when the Weaver Girl and the Cowherd meet at the Magpie Bridge. The Weaver Girl is a beautiful, intelligent, and ingenious fairy, and the women of the mortal world beg her for wisdom and ingenuity on this night, and also inevitably ask her for a happy marriage, so the seventh day of the seventh month is also known as the Begging Festival.

7. People say that on the night of Qixi Festival, you can see the Milky Way meeting of the Cowherd and Weaver Girl when you look up, or you can overhear the pulse and love words of the two when they meet in the sky under the melon and fruit stand. In this romantic evening, the girls put on seasonal melons and fruits in front of the bright moon in the sky, worshipping to the sky, begging the goddess of heaven to give them smart hearts and dexterous hands, so that their knitting skills are skillful, and they are begging for a good match for love and marriage. In the past, marriage was a lifelong event for women that determined the happiness of their lives, so countless affectionate men and women in the world would pray for a happy marriage to the stars at this night, when the night was quiet and deep.

The legend of "Tanabata" and the Cowherd and Weaver Girl.

The night of the seventh day of the seventh month of the lunar calendar, called "Qixi", our folk have the custom of "begging Qiao", so Qixi Festival is also called "Qiqiao Festival".

According to folklore, Qixi Festival is the day when the Cowherd and the Weaver Girl meet at the bridge. It is said that the Cowherd is an orphan in Niujiazhuang, Nanyang City, and lives by his brother and sister-in-law. His sister-in-law, Ma, was mean and often abused him, and he was forced to split up and rely on an old cow to feed himself.

This old cow is very psychic, one day, the Weaver Girl and the fairies went down to play, bathed in the river, the old cow persuaded the Cowherd to get the Weaver Girl's clothes, and the Weaver Girl became the Cowherd's wife. After getting married, they farmed and weaved, gave birth to a son and a daughter, and lived a very happy life. Unexpectedly, the Emperor of Heaven found out about this and sent the Queen Mother to escort the Weaver Girl back to the Heavenly Court for trial.

The old cow couldn't bear to let their wives separate, so he cut off the horns on his head and turned it into a small boat, and let the cowherd carry his children to chase after him in a boat. Seeing that she was about to catch up with the Weaver Girl, the Queen Mother suddenly pulled off the golden hairpin on her head and drew a rolling Milky Way in the sky. The Cowherd couldn't cross the river, so he could only look at the Weaver Girl by the river and weep from afar.

Their steadfast love touched the magpies, and countless magpies flew over and used their bodies to build a colorful bridge across the Tianhe, so that the Cowherd and the Weaver Girl could meet on the Tianhe. The Queen Mother had no choice but to allow the Cowherd and Weaver Girl to meet once a year on July 7 on the Magpie Bridge.

Since the seventh day of the seventh month of the lunar calendar is the rainy season, it often rains on this day, and people say that this is the tears of the Cowherd and the Weaver Girl. Some boys and girls in the countryside will lie under the bean rack, and it is said that they can hear the whispers of the cowherd and the weaver girl. Because the story of the Cowherd and the Weaver Girl is beautiful and moving, to this day, people often use "the Cowherd and the Weaver Girl" to describe the love of husband and wife.

On the night of Qixi Festival, the women also beg the Weaver Girl for wisdom. As contained in the "Jing Chu Years Chronicle", the begging method in the Northern and Southern Dynasties was "knotting colorful threads and threading seven-hole needles", and women used silk threads to thread needles back and forth, and it was natural to wear them quickly. After the Ming and Qing dynasties, the game of "throwing clever needles" was more popular.

This is done by taking a bowl of water and exposing it to the sun on the morning of July 7, and in an instant, a thin film is formed on the surface of the water. At this time, put the needle that you usually sew or embroider into the bowl, and if the needle floats on the water, it is a coincidence.

"Tanabata" was the earliest in people's worship of nature. Judging from historical documents, at least three or four thousand years ago, with people's understanding of astronomy and the emergence of textile technology, there were records about Altair and Vega. People worship the stars far more than Altair and Vega, they believe that there are seven stars representing directions in the east, west, north and south, collectively known as the Twenty-Eight Nakshatras, of which the Big Dipper is the brightest and can be used to discern the direction at night.

The first star of the Big Dipper is called Kuixing, also known as Kuishou. Later, with the imperial examination system, the champion was called "Da Kui Tian Corporal", and the scholars called Qixi "Kui Xing Festival", also known as "Book Festival", which maintained the traces of the earliest Qixi ** in the worship of the stars. "Tanabata" is also the worship of time by ancient people.

"Seven" is the same as "period", and the month and day are both "seven", giving people a sense of time. The ancient Chinese called the sun, moon and the five planets of water, fire, wood, metal and earth "seven yao". The number seven is manifested in the folk in terms of time, and the "seven-seven" is often the final game when calculating the time.

In old Beijing, when making dojos for the dead, they often thought that they would complete the "Seven Sevens". The current "week" is still preserved in Japanese. "Seven" is homophonic with "auspicious", and "seven-seven" has the meaning of double auspiciousness, which is an auspicious day.

In Taiwan, July is known as the month of "Joy and Prosperity". Because the shape of the word "Xi" in cursive script resembles "seventy-seven", the seventy-seven years old is also called "Xishou". "Qixi Festival" is also a phenomenon of digital worship, and the ancient folk put the first month and March.

March, May. May, July.

The "sevenfold" of July and September 9, plus the multiples of February 2 and 3, and June 6, are all listed as auspicious days. "Seven" is the number of beads in each column of the abacus, romantic and rigorous, giving people a mysterious beauty. "Seven" has the same sound as "wife", so Tanabata has largely become a festival associated with women.