Jenny Lao-Phillips
The seventh month of the lunar calendar is often considered to be the most unlucky time of the year. During this month, when the gate of hell is opened and spirits roam among the living world, even people who are not superstitious will not arrange important events like weddings or grand openings of businesses except on one day. The one and only day within this unluckily month that is considered auspicious is the seventh day of the seventh month, which we celebrate as Chat Zik Zit 七夕節 (Double Seventh Festival), better known amongst young people nowadays as the Chinese Valentine’s Day.
Many people would know the famous love story about Niu Lang牛郎 (Cowhand) and Zhi Nu 織女 (Weaver Maid), the seventh daughter of the Emperor of Heaven. The story interrupted the attention paid to the ghosts during this month. Chat Zik Zit celebrates the one day in the whole year which Niu Lang and Zhi Nu are allowed to meet, after the Empress of Heaven dragged her seventh daughter, who stole away to earth and married the cowhand, back to heaven. Touched by the love they have for each other, every year all magpies fly to heaven on the seventh day of the seventh month to form a bridge for the couple to meet.
So, that is a romantic story, but what do we do during this festival? Actually, the customs practiced on Chat Zik mostly have nothing to do with the story. And although it is now celebrated as a variant of Valentine’s Day, it is not a day for lovers either. In fact, in most places, it is not about commemorating the love of the unfortunate couples, but praying to Weaver Maid, the goddess of weaving, as the name implies. The most common tradition is called Hat Haau 乞巧 (to beg for wisdom and dexterity). On the night of the Double Seventh, young maidens set up an altar with incense, fruits, flowers, needles and threads to pray to Weaver Maid for wisdom and skills in needlework, which was considered an important skill for housewives in ancient China. Following the prayer for needlework skills, young girls also pray to meet a good husband.
In some places, the festival involves a competition in threading needles. Girls who successfully thread through seven needles will be blessed with dexterity. In other places, mostly Eastern regions of China, girls gather together to make dumplings. They wrap one coin, one needle and one date into three of the dumplings. At night, the girls will enjoy the dumplings together, and legend has it that the one who gets the dumpling with a coin will have luck, the one who gets the needle will have dexterity, and the one who gets the date will marry soon.
So, how do these customs connect with Valentine’s Day? The connection stems from the belief in ancient Chinese society that skills in needlework were one of the most important traits of a good wife. Thus, the better the needlework skills, the better her chance of arranging a marriage with a good family.
Of the many traditions in different parts of China, there is one directly related to the love story on Chat Zik. Around Zhejiang province, each family kills one rooster on the night of Chat Zik, believing that if no rooster crows in the morning, then the night will never end for the Cowhand and Weaver Maid, and they can be together forever. But whether related to the story of the lovers or not, Chinese Valentine’s day is not for lovers’ celebration, it is supposed to be a day for single girls, or rooster killing.
