The seventh day of the seventh lunar month is the Qixi Festival, also known as the Begging-for-Skills Festival, the Double Seventh, or the Birthday of the Seventh Sister. Qixi began in the Han dynasty and is a traditional festival celebrated across China and the wider Chinese-character cultural sphere. Tradition holds that on the night of the seventh (or the sixth) day of the seventh lunar month, women would pray to the Weaving Maid star for wisdom and skill — hence the name “begging for skills.” Originating in nature worship and in women’s needle-threading rituals, it later took on the legend of the Cowherd and the Weaving Maid and became a festival symbolising love. Its many customs — threading needles to beg for skill, praying for fortune, longevity and prosperity, worshipping the Seventh Sister, laying out flowers and fruit, and needlework — spread to Japan, the Korean peninsula, Vietnam and other countries of the Chinese-character cultural sphere. On 20 May 2006, the State Council of the People’s Republic of China inscribed the Qixi Festival on the first national list of intangible cultural heritage.
