The story of the Seventh Daughter

The Story of the Seventh Daughter

• In China,  a festival called Qixi Festival is being celebrated  since 2600 years ago.
• This festival is treated as the Chinese Valentines's day
• In Chinese Mythology,  Zhinu is the Seventh Daughter of the Goddess.
• She escaped from boring heaven to look for fun and was born as a weaver and she loved a cow-herd(His name is Niulang).
• Their love was not allowed  and so  they got married without the knowledge of the Goddess.
• They lived happily and had two children. 
• The Goddess discovered this and was very angry  and took  Zhinü back to heaven
•  On Earth, Niulang was very upset that his wife had disappeared. 
• Suddenly, his ox began to talk, telling him that if he killed it and wear  its skin to hide his identity, he would be able to go up to Heaven to find his wife. 
• Crying bitterly, he killed the ox, put on the skin, and carried his two beloved children off to Heaven to find Zhinü.
•  Taking out her hairpin, the Goddess scratched a wide river in the sky to separate the two lovers forever, thus forming the Milky Way between the stars Altair and Vega. Zhinü must sit forever on one side of the river, sadly weaving on her loom, while Niulang watches her from afar while taking care of their two children ( stars β and γ Aquilae )
•  But once a year all the magpies in the world would take pity on them and fly up into heaven to form a bridge  over the star Deneb in the Cygnus constellation so the lovers may be together for a single night, which is the seventh night of the seventh moon.
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• This day became the festival day for chinese young lovers and for newly-wed couples.
•  Traditionally, they would worship the celestial couple for the last time and bid farewell to them .
• The celebration stood symbol for a happy marriage and showed that the married woman was treasured by her new family.
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• On this day, the Chinese gaze to the sky to look for Vega and Altair shining in the Milky Way, while a third star forms a symbolic bridge between the two stars.
•  It was said that if it rains on this day that it was caused by a river sweeping away the magpie bridge, or that the rain is the tears of the separated couple.
•  Based on the legend of a flock of magpies forming a bridge to reunite the couple, a pair of magpies came to symbolize conjugal happiness and faithfulness.

Once a year all the magpies in the world would take pity on them and fly up into heaven to form a bridge  over the star Deneb in the Cygnus constellation so the lovers may be together for a single night, which is the seventh night of the seventh moon.

The Goddess scratched a wide river in the sky to separate the two lovers forever, thus forming the Milky Way between the stars Altair and Vega