Qixi Festival
01 · Historical Records
The ancestors of Shitang migrated here from southern Fujian more than three hundred years ago, bringing with them the belief in Qiniang Ma (the Seventh Mother). From the Ming and Qing dynasties onward, Shitang became a major fishing town of eastern Zhejiang; close maritime traffic brought the incense traditions, paper effigies, and festival customs of the southern Fujian area into this seaside village. In Taiwan, along the Tainan–Kaohsiung line, Qiniang Ma is still worshipped to this day with colored pavilions, following the same approach as Shitang's colored pavilions and sedan chairs. In modern times this custom was once practiced only quietly in a few families, but it revived after reform and opening up; now every year's Qixi is collectively run with the village as the unit. The craft of making paper pavilions, paper sedan chairs, and floral wreaths has become the key to the survival of this custom — one set of paper effigies is half of the sacrifice.
02 · Core Techniques & Process
The ancestors of Shitang migrated from southern Fujian more than three hundred years ago, and this custom came with them, surviving to this day. Qiniang Ma, also called the "Seventh Star Lady" or the "Heavenly Immortal Lady", is an incarnation of the Weaver Girl star; in southern Fujian, Qiniang Ma is honored as the protective deity of children. Folk legend holds that Qixi is the birthday of Qiniang Ma, and children under sixteen sacrifice to Qiniang Ma to pray for blessings. Sixteen is the dividing line at which a child becomes an adult; afterwards they no longer take part in the sacrifice, so this activity is locally called the "Little People's Festival" (Xiaoren Jie). The chief officiant is a female elder of the family. The ritual procedure is as follows: from the early hours of the morning of the seventh day to noon, families with children set up offering tables at the door, laying out colored pavilions and colored sedan chairs, lighting incense and candles, and placing seven wine cups, seven-colored threads, seasonal fresh fruits and vegetables, sugar turtles, sliced meat, suomian noodles, zongzi, and other items to sacrifice to Qiniang Ma. When the sacrifice ends, firecrackers are set off and the colored pavilions and sedan chairs are burned to present them to Qiniang Ma.
Setting the offering table
Before noon on the seventh, households with young children set a table with paper pavilions, seven wine cups, coloured threads, fruit and zongzi.
Burning the paper offerings
Firecrackers end the rite, then the paper pavilions and sedan chairs are burnt for the goddess, with children rewarded afterwards.
The age limit and the officiant
Children under sixteen revere the seventh lady as their protector; the rite is overseen by a woman of the older generation.
03 · Regional Records & Related Items
The Shitang Qixi custom is current in the Shitang and Ruoshan area along the coast of Wenling, Zhejiang; it is a traditional folk activity in which children under sixteen pray to Qiniang Ma for blessings on the day of the Qixi Festival.
Other submitting regions for the same item: Qixi Festival · Qixi Festival · Qixi Festival · Qixi Festival.
04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding
This custom has a distinctly southern Fujian cultural character and is directly connected with the custom of worshipping the Weaver Girl "Qiniang Ma" with colored pavilions in Tainan, Kaohsiung, and elsewhere in Taiwan; it is of important significance for strengthening cultural identity and exchange across the Taiwan Strait, and it also has living-fossil value for folklore research on coming-of-age rites. Chen Qicai (recorded in the official file of the associated inheritor): Influenced by his family and village, from childhood he loved making paper pavilions, paper sedan chairs, and floral wreaths, and he became familiar with the established practices of the Shitang Qixi custom. His making skills enjoyed considerable renown locally and were deeply appreciated by the surrounding people. Every Qixi Festival he helped his neighbors make paper pavilions and conducted the rites of the Shitang Qixi custom. He often took part in and guided the large street-parade activities of the Lantern Festival. The paper pavilions he made were exhibited many times at the arts and crafts exhibitions of Wenling and have been collected by the cultural relics department of Wenling. Male, Han nationality, born in December 1942 in Wenling City, Zhejiang Province; died in January 2018. He was a representative inheritor of the Qixi Festival (Shitang Qixi Custom) project in the fourth batch of national-level intangible cultural heritage.
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)
This static English edition is rendered at the edge for search engines, AI crawlers and readers without JavaScript; it mirrors the bilingual dossier. 阅读中文版，或返回 英文名录。