Unveil ‘the oriental Valentine’s day

Unveil ‘the oriental Valentine’s day
Sep 1, 2006 04:39
HEIDI Points: Join Date: May 9, 2006 Status: offline	Every July 7th of the lunar calendar is the considered as the Chinese Valentine’s day. It is said Herd-boy and Weaving-girl (separated lovers in Chinese mythology) have only one chance to meet all the year around on that night, so that day is thought to be a day of lovers’ gathering. Therefore, rose, chocolate and goods related to love are well sold and lovers celebrate it just like the valentine’s day of February 14th. However, according to an interview with an expert on Chinese custom by the Xinhua News Agency, this festival has nothing to do with meeting of lovers. Also called daughters’ festival to which women in ancient china attached great importance; it is a festival that women worshiped the gods at night for their being clever and deft, for the safety and health of their husbands and children. Since weaving skill was an important aspect to evaluate women, the Weaving-girl, a weaving master, was worshiped by women in the hope of having superb weaving skills. You see? You may also find that more young Chinese celebrate Christmas day. Is this phenomenon a kind of commercialization of culture or the loss of culture?

Sep 1, 2006 04:39

HEIDI
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Join Date: May 9, 2006
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Every July 7th of the lunar calendar is the considered as the Chinese Valentine’s day. It is said Herd-boy and Weaving-girl (separated lovers in Chinese mythology) have only one chance to meet all the year around on that night, so that day is thought to be a day of lovers’ gathering. Therefore, rose, chocolate and goods related to love are well sold and lovers celebrate it just like the valentine’s day of February 14th. However, according to an interview with an expert on Chinese custom by the Xinhua News Agency, this festival has nothing to do with meeting of lovers. Also called daughters’ festival to which women in ancient china attached great importance; it is a festival that women worshiped the gods at night for their being clever and deft, for the safety and health of their husbands and children. Since weaving skill was an important aspect to evaluate women, the Weaving-girl, a weaving master, was worshiped by women in the hope of having superb weaving skills.
You see? You may also find that more young Chinese celebrate Christmas day. Is this phenomenon a kind of commercialization of culture or the loss of culture?

Sep 4, 2006 22:53	#1
PINETREE Points: 2514 Join Date: Oct 9, 2005 Status: Offline	Hahaha !! Is this Self-cognize Deficency Syndrome ? Isn't this Chinese folklore was light years ahead of that Valentine.

Sep 4, 2006 23:09

APAULT
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Heidi... thanks for that background information on Chinese folklore.... very interesting.

The public celebration of Christmas by Chinese is usually straight commercialisation by business. The commercialisation of Christmas is sad because it is diluting Chinese tradition for the sake of profit. Of course Christians will celebrate in their own way and probably are less caught up in the commercialisation. (But that begs the question of whether Christianity is diluting Chinese tradition... I won't comment on that!)

Pinetree.... I agree Chinese folklore is ancient, but so too is much western folklore. Most of our festivals go way back. Most are a combination of Christianity placed on top of old 'heathen' traditions. This is so for Christmas and Valentines Day which go back to around the 3rd Century. For one explanation of the origins of Valentines Day see http://www.techdirect.com/valentine/origin.html.

Sep 4, 2006 23:18

PINETREE
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Join Date: Oct 9, 2005
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Am not really interested in the length and shortness of it perse. It is the "chong yang" mentality displayed by some Chinese people that I find weird/interesting to me.
Do you find the westerners labelling their places or festivals like Suzhou of Italy or Herd Boy-Weaving Gal day of Spain or something like that ? Just like Asian gals like to dye their hair brown or white but no westerners dye theirs black.
Think about it - maybe I am indeed "too dramatic". Hahaha !! Have fun.

Sep 5, 2006 02:59

TEKNOMED
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Hi Pinetree, you've got a point there. The East tends to think anything Western is good and beautiful so Asian gals and guys dye their hair blond, nose and eyes jobs done to make their nose straighter and eyes look round. This is all commercialisation. The West did a better and longer job in advertisement so the world follow. In the end we will have everyone looking like each other. How great will that be. Peace on Earth.

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