The Double Seven Festival, Qixi, is an event little known to Western culture, but it is deeply felt in the East. It is the Chinese version of the Valentine’s Day, also taken from the Japanese tradition. The famous legend is proposed in various versions, below we have chosen our favorite.
Zhi Nu was the granddaughter of the Heavenly Emperor and lived on the eastern edge of the Milky Way. She was a weaver and in fact, every day, she worked on the loom with mysterious threads that she used to weave the clouds. The latter, which had changing colors depending on the time and seasons, were the dress of the sky.
The world of the Milky Way was not the only one that existed, beyond it there was the world of men, where a cowherd named Niu Lang lived. The young man was an orphan because his parents had died some time ago and his life was difficult: his brother and sister-in-law had in fact taken possession of the entire family inheritance, leaving him only an old ox. Niu Lang worked hard with his ox to cultivate a patch of barren land and build a hut. After two years, however, the situation had not improved much, plus he was always alone.
The ox, one day, told him spoke suggesting that he steal Zhi Nu’s dress when the weaver, together with her sisters, undressed to take a bath in the Milky Way. She revealed to him that by taking possession of that dress, he could take her as his wife. Then Niu Lang, who felt very alone, decided to follow the ox’s advice, hid among the reeds on the bank of the Milky Way, and awaited the arrival of Zhi Nu.
The latter arrived together with her sisters, they all undressed and immersed themselves in the river. Niu Lang emerged from the reeds and secretly took Zhi Nu’s dress. The fairies noticed him and ran away in fear, hastily putting on their clothes. Only Zhi Nu remained in the river. Niu Lang then asked her to become his wife and Zhi Nu accepted.
From that moment on, the cowherd and the weaver worked hard and managed, together, to live in harmony. They also gave birth to two very beautiful children, a boy and a girl. They loved each other, but Zhi Nu’s father, the Heavenly Emperor, and her maternal grandmother, Wang Mu Niang Niangthey were not at all happy with their union. So they sent the Heavenly Gods to retrieve Zhi Nu.
The latter was forced to separate from her husband and children and return to the Celestial Court. Niu Lang, grieving, decided to reach his bride to her world, together with her two children placed in two baskets. When he arrived there, he noticed that the celestial river had disappeared, transported into the sky by his maternal grandmother. The Milky Way still existed but had become inaccessible.
The cowherd returned home with his children in desperation and the ox then spoke to him a second time, announcing his death. He also told him to skin him once he was dead and to dress himself in his skin so that he could go to Heaven.
The ox died, Niu Lang did as suggested and covered himself with its skin, then left towards the sky together with the two children in the two baskets. Once in the sky, he ran like the wind among the stars and as he approached the Milky Way, he seemed to see his beloved bride. Even the children saw it and shouted “mom, mom“. When they arrived at the bank of the river to cross it, a woman’s hand appeared from the sky, it was that of her maternal grandmother. Nervous, she traced a furrow along the Milky Way using her gold pin, and the waterway became a raging river.
Niu Lang and the children began to cry in despair and his daughter suggested that he collect the water from the river with a ladle until it dried up. The father accepted and they began to remove water from the river by helping each other. Seeing how strong their love was, the Heavenly Emperor and the cold-hearted maternal grandmother softened and finally decided to allow the two lovers to meet, but only once a year, on the evening of the seventh day of the seventh lunar month.
On that special day the magpies would have formed a bridge to allow the two spouses to meet and exchange words of love.
From that moment on, Niu Lang and his two sons continued to live in Heaven, observing from afar Zhi Nu, who lived on the other bank of the Celestial River. Even today the two largest stars that shine on both sides of the river, the stars Altair and Vega, or Niu Lang and Zhi Nu, can be admired in the night sky during autumn, and near them two smaller stars, the two children born from their love.
