Guest Author - Caroline Baker
In Western cultures, Valentine's Day is a time of love, to share and express our love for one another. Love is a universal thing, it transcends cultural boundaries.
Many Chinese around the world celebrate love through holidays throughout the year. But there are three in particular that focus on love.
Fifteen days after Chinese New Years, there a large festival known as the Lantern Festival. During this time, everyone comes out into the streets with large paper lanterns to celebrate and remember their ancestors. The larger and more elaborate a laterns, the more influencial and powerful the family.
This also happens to be the only celebration in ancient times which women could walk around unescorted. Men and women could meet each other in these crowds and make a connection. Matchmakers would wander though the crowds to find these matches in hopes of making a connection and setting up families with favorable marriages for the coming season.
Later in the year, the Double Seven Day is noted as a time to reflect on love and relationships. It is often referred to as the "Chinese Valentine's Day". As the story goes, an honest oxherder had been so kind to his ox that the creature told him of a secret pond where the beautiful daughters of the Emperor of Heaven bathed. If the oxherder stole one of their clothes, she would be unable to escape and become his wife. As it happened, the girl happened to be the seventh, youngest and most beautiful, daughter of the Emperor of Heaven. They fell in love and lived together happily for many years and bore two children.
When the Emperor of Heaven found out, he was angered and ordered his daughter be brought back. The oxherder came home with his children to find her gone. The old ox, who he had cared for through all of this, said he was too old and about to die. He advised the oxherder to cut his skin and wear it so that he would go to heaven to find his wife. But when they found her, the Emperor separated them by a large river. They were all so sad that the Emperor felt guilty. So on the seventh day of the seventh month, he releases a set of magpies which fly up and create a bridge to unite the oxherder and his wife. Thus the day of love to celebrate their reunion.
Finally, the last celebration is actually the Western Valentine's Day. As with many things, the Chinese culture has absorbed a lot of the traditions of groups that have influenced them. As changes occurred in China during the 80's, many Chinese embraced all the new things that came in with the growing Western influence. Included in this is celebrating the many holidays of the Western world.
Interestingly enough, this modern holiday has more sway these days on the Chinese population in mainland China than the other two. Some believe this is because the traditional holidays are just that, an accent to the past. Being based on lunisolar calendar dates, it's a lot harder to predict from year to year exactly when the traditional holiday will occur.
Others say that it has to do with how reserved the view of love was in China's past. As with most cultures, the view of love and relationships had an "innocence" about it. Marriage was more than just about the attraction between two people, it had to do with continuing the family, saving face, and extending the family wealth.
On the reverse, many Chinese outside of China are actually turning their attentions back to these traditional festivities. It is seen as a way to connect with their roots and past. It presents a unique way to celebrate love that is special because not many people know about it.
I believe, however, there can never be enough love in the year. Love is something to be celebrated each day. And the combination of all three holidays, the East meets West, the New meets Old, is a wonderful way to help remind us that love is not just one day a year!
