NEWS//Valentine's Day in China
Valentine's Day, February 14, is not celebrated widely in China. It appears mostly in conjunction with commercial events in the largest urban areas, cities like Shanghai, Beijing, Hong Kong, and Guangzhou. Valentine’s Day is not popular in small cities, towns and the countryside.
But China does have its own traditional holiday that has many of the characteristics of the West's Valentine's Day. It is called Qi Qiao Jie, or the seventh eve. It occurs on the seventh day of the seventh month of China's lunar calendar. This year it falls on Tuesday, August 25.
Americans include gift-giving in their Valentine’s celebration. Qi Qiao Jie doesn't include gifts. But it does focus on romance.
On the Chinese Valentine's Day, lovers go to the temple of Matchmaker and pray for their love and happiness and their possible marriage in China. People who are single also go to the Matchmaker temple to ask for luck in love.
The Daughter's Festival is another name for this holiday. In ancient times, Chinese girls learned handcrafting skills as a way to prepare for marriage and family. On this holiday, unmarried girls would perform a test of their readiness for marriage by gently placing a needle on the surface of water in a bowl. If the needle didn't sink, it was a sign of a girl's maturity, intelligence, and eligibility to find a husband. Girls who passed this test were able to claim any wish.
People, in some provinces of China, believe that decorating oxen's horns with flowers on the Chinese Valentine's Day will save them from catastrophe. Another fascinating aspect of Chinese Valentine's Day is women washing their hair to make it look fresh and shining. Children use the leftover wash-water to wash their faces the next morning to give them a more natural, beautiful look.
In addition to chocolate, favorite foods for Qi Qiao Jie include mango, shrimp, and ginger. According to tradition, these foods help rouse passions.
Sources: The Spruce Eats, Everything Valentine’s Day, Chinese Fortune Calendar, St. Valentine’s Day.org, Time and Date.com, China Lights.com