Chinese Valentine's Day Comes
The festival
On Chinese Valentine's Day, couples go to matchmaker temples to pray for everlasting love and marriage. Even single
people will frequent the temple for luck in love.
Chinese Valentine's Day is also called "The Daughter's Festival". Long ago,
Chinese girls aspired to becoming skilled craftswomen like the Weaving Maid.
This skill was considered essential to their future as wives and mothers. On
that night, unmarried girls prayed to the Weaving Maid star for the special
gift. When the star Vega was high up in the sky, girls performed a small test by
placing a needle on the water's surface: If the needle did not sink, the girl
was considered to be ready to find a husband. Once a year, on this day, girls
could wish for anything their hearts desired.
In some Chinese provinces, people believe that decorating an ox's horns with
flowers on Chinese Valentine's Day will ward off disaster. On the night of
Valentine's Day, women wash their hair to give it a fresh and shiny look;
children wash their faces the next morning using the overnight water in their
backyards for a more naturally beautiful appearance; and girls throw
five-colored ropes made during the Chinese Dragon Boat
Festival on the roofs so magpies can use them to build the
bridge.
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