七夕英文演讲稿

Double Seventh Festival

Background：

Double Seventh Festival in China, the 7th day of the 7th lunar month, is considered China’s Valentine’s Day. Also called Begging-for-Dexterity Festival（乞巧节）（Zhinu is a beautiful and smart fairy with deft hands and the women in the mortal world will beg for intelligence and deft needle work from her）

"Double Seventh Day" is also an outgrowth of number worship January 1, March 3, May 5, July 7, and September 9 along with February 2 and June 6, altogether seven pairs of date in the lunar calendar, were considered auspicious days by the ancient Chinese. "Seven" is also the number of the beads in each row of the abacus, romantic and precise, giving a mysterious aesthetic feeling.

Furthermore, "七" bears the same pronunciation with "妻" (wife), thus the Double Seventh Day is to a great extent a festival related to women. Meanwhile, "七" forms partial tone with "吉,” therefore "double seven,” carrying the meaning o f double auspiciousness, is a lucky day. In Taiwan, July is considered the month of most happiness and auspiciousness.

Legend：

This festival is in mid-summer when the weather is warm and the grass and trees reveal greens. At night when the sky is dotted with stars, and people can see the Milky Way spanning from the north to the south. On each bank of it is a bright star, which see each other from afar. They are the Cowherd and Weaver Maid, and about them there is a beautiful love story passed down from generation to generation.

A long long time ago, there was a poor cowherd, Niulang. He fell in love with Zhinu, “the Girl Weaver". Virtuous and kind, she was the most beautiful being in the whole universe. Unfortunately, the King and Que en of Heaven were furious finding out that their grand daughter had gone to the world of Man and taken a h usband. Thus, the couple was separated by a wide s wollen river in the sky and can only meet once a year on the seventh day of the seventh lunar month.

Well-known poem

Fairy Of The Magpie Bridge鹊桥仙

•Among the beautiful clouds, 纤云弄巧

•Over the heavenly river, 飞星传恨

•Crosses the weaving maiden. 银汉迢迢暗度

• A night of rendezvous,

•Across the autumn sky.金风玉露一相逢

•Surpasses joy on earth. 便胜却人间无数

•Moments of tender love and dream,

•So sad to leave the magpie bridge.

•柔情似水，佳期如梦，忍顾鹊桥归路

•Eternal love between us two,

•Shall withstand the time apart.

•两情若是久长时，又岂在朝朝暮暮

(Translated by Kylie Hsu) What can we learn

Love doesn't kill or break up the barrier between them. They just wait patiently on the riverbank, believing that their love can withstand their time apart.

Folk Customs on the Double Seventh Day

Pleading for Skills by Threading a Needle穿针乞巧

⏹In order to plead for skills, threading a Special needle

is the most long-standing means.

⏹It tests the speed of threading a needle under the

moon.

⏹It is said that the needles used in the contest are the

seven-hole needle of the Han Dynasty or the nine-tail needle of the Yuan Dynasty.

⏹With more holes than ordinary needles, they are

rather hard to handle.

Cobweb as the Determinant喜蛛应巧

⏹Pleading for skills with cobweb is another common

custom in the festival, in which everybody puts a spider into a locket and waits until the next morning to see if there is cobweb and if any, how it looks.

⏹The one with a most round cobweb of the most

mesh(蛛眼) will be the winner.

I think this way is easier but more uncertain than threading a needle. It really need luck.

Qiaoguo巧果/七夕果“Proper fruit” but not a fruit

⏹Qiaoguo（Fried Thin Pastes）is in different shapes with

the materials mostly being oil, flour, sugar and honey.

⏹The deft hands will nip them into all shapes related to

the legend of the Festival.

⏹The melons and fruits used on the day are usually

carved into the shapes of flowers and birds, or carved with patterns in relief on the melon peel, which are therefore called “carved melons”花瓜