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II. Origins of Chinese and Western Valentine’s Day
Festival is a necessary part of culture, which is formed in people’s daily life, and is a carrier of culture and emotion. Therefore, different cultures will produce different festivals. It is same to the Chinese Qixi Festival and Western Valentine’s Day. They have different origins and are produced by different story.
2.1 The Origin of Chinese Qixi Festival
Chinese Qixi Festival came from a Chinese legend. There was a cowherd named Niu Lang. When he was a child, his parents passed away. His old brother and sister-in-low disliked him, so they drove him out of their home, and only gave him an old cow. Niu Lang lived together with his cow. One day, the old cow told Niu Lang that a group of fairy maidens from the heavenly palace would take a bath in a pond, and he could sneak a fairy maiden’s clothes when they were taking shower. Niu Lang did as the old cow told him, and he met a fairy maiden named Zhi Nv. Later, the fairy maiden fell in love with the cowherd, and she didn’t want to return to the heavenly palace. She married with the cowherd, and they had a son and a daughter. When the heavenly queen knew about this, she was very angry. She sent Zhi Nv back to the heavenly palace. Niu Lang pursued after his wife hurriedly, so the queen used a river to separate Niu Lang and Zhi Nv. She only allowed them to meet once a year. Niu Lang and Zhi Nv met each other on the seventh evening of July in the lunar calendar, on that day, all the magpies built a magpie bridge to help Niu Lang and Zhi Nv meet each other. This is the origin of Chinese Qixi Festival.
2.2 The Origin of Western Valentine’s Day
The origin of Western Valentine’s Day has the following several popular legends:
First, Western Valentine’s Day is also called Saint Valentine’s Day. This story came from the third century. Ancient Rome had a tyrant called Claudius. Claudius forced the young men to join the army and he prohibited the lovers get married. Kind-hearted Valentine couldn’t bear the sight of tyrant, and he helped to an engaged couple to marry in front of the altar secretly. Claudius knew this matter finally, he sent his soldiers seized Valentine, and tortured him, but Valentine did not yield. In the end, Valentine died in prison. Valentine died on the day of February 14th. In order to commemorate him, people took February 14th as Valentine’s Day.