Qixi Festival
01 · Historical Records
It appeared in the Han dynasty, developed through the Tang and Song periods, and reached its height in the Ming and Qing dynasties; it has a history of more than a thousand years.
02 · Core Techniques & Process
Thanks to its unique geographical environment and deep historical and cultural accumulation, the qiqiao folk custom has been passed down in Xihe without decline. For a period after the founding of the People's Republic of China, this custom declined under suppression, but after the reform and opening up it was restored. The Xihe qiqiao folk activity is rich in content and varied in form; it begins on the evening of the 30th day of the sixth lunar month (the 29th in a short month) and ends on the evening of the seventh day of the seventh month, lasting seven days and eight nights, and the whole activity is divided into seven stages: zuo qiao (sitting in skill), ying qiao (welcoming skill), ji qiao (offering to skill), bai qiao (bowing to skill), yu qiao (amusing skill), bu qiao (divining by skill), and song qiao (sending off skill). The seven days and seven nights of Xihe qiqiao are held in stages, with the village community as the unit. In the "sitting in skill" stage, the girls each set up a table at home, with embroidery hoops and colored silks all ready, doing needlework while keeping watch deep into the night — this is the skill of quiet abiding. Next comes "welcoming skill": boys are sent to a neighboring village to make the invitation, with drums and music following, turning traffic between village communities into a public procession. "Offering to skill" means setting out offerings facing the Weaver Girl, with the qiqiao fruits and qiao steamed breads piled layer upon layer, and beyond the offerings a singer arranged to sing qiqiao songs. After the "bowing to skill" comes "amusing skill", which mostly takes the form of young men and women singing duets in little songs, dancing and making merry; when the numbers are large the scene is especially grand. "Divining by skill" uses a needle cast by a woman; whether it falls right into the eye of the needle determines that day's luck. "Sending off skill" falls on the final day: each family distributes qiqiao fruits to relatives and neighbors, and with the rites complete the festival ends. The seven stages follow one another in sequence, stretching what was a single night for farming households into a full week of communal life.
Sitting through the night at work
On the last night of the sixth month girls set up their embroidery and keep vigil, each household lit lamp by lamp.
Welcoming the festival
Boys are sent with drum and music to summon the neighbouring villages, and the returning procession is itself part of the rite.
Offering and the qiqiao cakes
The offering table is laid with fruit and moulded cakes pressed from patterns, the work of the women of the household.
Songs, play and the needle cast
Singers trade songs and cast a needle: hitting the eye of the needle marks the luck of the year.
Sending the cakes
On the last day the festival cakes are shared out to neighbours and unmarried girls, and the seven-day observance comes to a close.
03 · Regional Records & Related Items
The Qixi qiqiao folk custom of the Xihe area of Gansu Province has rich cultural connotations and distinctly regional characteristics; it is mainly transmitted in Xihe County in southeastern Gansu and in Yongxing and Yanguan in Li County.
Other submitting regions for the same item: Qixi Festival · Qixi Festival · Qixi Festival · Qixi Festival.
04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding
The Xihe Qiqiao Festival custom is a comprehensive folk activity combining belief, poetry, music, song and dance, and arts and crafts, and it has high value for historical and cultural research. Excavating and protecting the Xihe qiqiao folk custom is of great significance for advancing research on the social institutions, ways of life, folk customs, and aesthetic orientations of the era of agrarian civilization, for tracing the origins of Chinese civilization, and for exploring the characteristics of the culture of western Qin. Xihe qiqiao arose in the Han dynasty, flourished in the Ming and Qing, declined after suppression in the modern period, and was restored after reform and opening up. In recent years, on the basis of the original village-community qiqiao, the county has supported literary and artistic performances, attracting young women from various places to spend the festival here; the mass character and scope of participation in qiqiao have clearly expanded, while the basic framework of the seven stages and the way village communities undertake them have been preserved. Physical remains such as qiqiao songs, qiqiao steamed breads, and qiqiao steamed-bread molds are important evidence for studying festival customs and folk handcraft in southeastern Gansu.
05 · Associated Representative Bearers
Representative bearers recorded under this item, organized by national nomination batch:
- Chen Qicai 04-1956
- Xi Lanlan
06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography
Sources
China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)
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