Double Seventh Day

In Guangxi Province: water storage There is a custom in some areas of Guangdong Province which is to store water on the Double Seventh Day. People believe that the water of the day can help dispel diseases and disasters. Children who are feeble and can easily get ill usually tie seven knots on a red string and wear it to pray for health and luck.

In Shandong Province: making “Qiaocai” and “Qiaohua” In Rongcheng City, Shandong Province, there are two kinds of activities conducted by young women on the Double Seventh Day. One is to make “Qiaocai,” which is to breed malt in wine glasses; the other is to make “Qiaohua,” which is food shaped in forms of flowers and made of flour.

In Shaoxing City: hearing the whispers under the pumpkin canopy In the countryside of Shaoxing City, it’s said that a young woman who can hear the whispers of the Cowherd and the Weaving Maid on the night of the Double Seventh Day can finally get a pure and eternal love.

III. Values and meanings of the Double Seventh Day

1. The Double Seventh Day has praised the view of unswervingly true love and shown people’s dream and pursuit of ideal love. It has inherited and carried forward the traditional virtue of a Chinese nation showing strong responsibility. 2. In farming society, family is not a basic production and life unit, but also a component cell of the whole society. Good relationships between couples and harmonious families can directly affect the society’s stability and development. Promoting the Cowherd and the Weaving Maid’s view of true and pure love and marriage has great significance under the shock of western culture. 3. The activities of pleading for skills or happiness on the Double Seventh Day have showed the Chinese nation’s diligence, self-improvement, continuous creativity, courage and pursuit of happy lives. These activities will surely further inspire the Chinese.