Category: Chinese customs

Qixi, the night of Sevens, sometimes called Chinese Valentine's Day or Magpie Festival, the seventh day of the seventh lunar month is especially for lovers, like Valentine's Day.

Magpie Festival has sometimes been called Chinese Valentine's Day since the late 1990s, which is, strictly speaking, an inaccurate portrait of the festival. Girls traditionally demonstrate their domestic arts, especially melon carving, on this day and make wishes for a good husband.

Magpie Festival is Valentine's Day in China. It is also called Double Seventh Festival or The Begging Festival. It falls in 13th of Auguest of 2013.

Magpie Festival/Qixi Festival, also known as Magpie Festival, falls on the seventh day of the seventh lunar month on the Chinese calendar. It falls on 13th August in 2013.

Magpie Festival/Qixi Festival comes from the ancient story of Niulang and Zhinv:

A young cowherd named Niulang, came across seven fairy sisters bathing in a lake. Encouraged by his mischievous companion the ox, he stole their clothes and waited to see what would happen. The fairy sisters elected the youngest and most beautiful sister Zhinv to retrieve their clothing. She agreed to do so, but since Niulang had seen her naked, she agreed to his request for marriage. She proved to be a wonderful wife, and Niulang to be a good husband. They lived happily and had two children. But the Goddess of Heaven found out that Zhinv, a fairy girl, had married a mere mortal. The Goddess was furious and ordered Zhinv to return to heaven. On Earth, Niulang was very upset that his wife had disappeared. Suddenly, his ox began to talk, telling him that if he killed it and put on its hide, he would be able to go up to Heaven to find his wife. Crying bitterly, he killed the ox, put on the skin, and carried his two beloved children off to Heaven to find Zhinv. The Goddess discovered this and was very angry. Taking out her hairpin, the Goddess scratched a wide river in the sky to separate the two lovers forever, thus forming the Milky Way between Altair and Vega.

Zhinv must sit forever on one side of the river, sadly weaving on her loom, while Niulang watches her from afar and takes care of their two children.

But once a year all the magpies in the world would take pity on them and fly up into heaven to form a bridge (鹊桥, "the bridge of magpies", Que Qiao) over the star Deneb in the Cygnus constellation so the lovers may be together for a single night, which is the seventh night of the seventh moon.

Cypress is Baimu, Bomu wood in China. Cypress is categorized along with nanmu in the Song dynasty Yingzao fashi categorizes as a "miscellaneous soft wood" (za ruanmu). Late Ming connoisseurs noted the use of Sichuan cypress as a suitable furniture-making material, and Qing dynasty records from the Yuanmingyuan also indicate that southern cypress was of comparable value to nanmu.

【汉语】老外与小麦系列故事 之十二
时间: 7月30日(星期二) 20:15 – 21:15
主讲老师: 小麦（点击关注老师的沪江主页>>>）
公开课地点: Hujiang Chinese（点击下载CCTALK）

Camphor is Xiangzhang wood in China. Because of its resistance to insects as well as its attractive grain patterns, camphor wood has long been used for making wardrobes and storage chests. Camphor is a large evergreen tree of the laurel family. It frequently grows to huge proportions approaching 50 meters in height with trunks reaching 5 meters in diameter. It is widely distributed south of the Yangzi River including Hainan Island, with the largest concentrations found in Taiwan, followed by Jiangxi and Fujian.

Jumu wood in China is Southern Elm, Zelkova. Southern Elm was a popular furniture-making wood in the Suzhou region. It is distinguished from its northern counterpart by a more refined ring porous structure that is apparent in the tangential surface, and by small medullary rays that are visible as fine reflective flecks across the radial surface. Southern Elm is also comparatively denser and stronger.

To post autumn autumn fat 贴秋膘 民间流行在立秋这天以悬秤称人，将体重与立夏时对比。因为人到夏天，本就没有什么胃口，饭食清淡简单，两三个月下来，通常就会出现大麻烦：体重大都要减少一些。秋风一起，胃口大开，想吃点好的，增加一点营养，补偿夏天的损失，补的办法就是“贴秋膘”：在立秋这天各种各样的肉，炖肉、烤肉、红烧肉等等，“以肉贴膘”。