Chinese Valentine's Day｜Taiwan

[Chinese Valentine's Day-Chinese Valentine's Day]
For Chinese Valentine's Day, everyone knows the origin of this festival because of the legend of the Cowherd and the Weaver Girl. Modern holidays are mostly gifts to lovers or friends, but how did the early Taiwanese celebrate it?

In traditional Taiwan, there is a sister who is said to be the Weaver Girl. Because they sympathized with the Weaver Girl and the Cowherd being separated, they decided to protect their children from growing up safely. Therefore, "Qiniangma" is regarded as the patron saint of children. Many parents will give their children to Qiniangma as a righteous son or daughter. When they become adults, they even have a "16-year-old adult ceremony" in order to thank Qiniangma for all the time. Bless.

And on the Qixi Festival, in order to worship Qi Niangma, early Taiwanese would prepare many rich sacrifices, as well as cosmetics, such as gouache, rouge and other sacrifices, to visit the temple! Pray for the children in the family to grow up safely.

In addition to these customs, early women would "beg for cleverness." By holding many activities, like threading needles with thin threads, they prayed that they could be as smart as the Weaver Girl and get a good marriage.

Compared with the present, the Qixi Festival in the past did not have so many romantic colors, but there were many blessing activities. Paobian feels that although the way of celebrating the festival is different from before, it is a pretty good thing to try to understand the traditional culture and customs, and even actually participate!