While rains unleashed by typhoon Sepat pounded southeast China on Sunday, old Chinese people would rather believe that water falling from the heaven is the tears of a pair of ill-fated lovers.

Single Chinese men and women take part in a mass matchmaking event in a stadium in Wuhan, Hubei Province, August 19. A variety of activities were organized to celebrate Chinese Valentine's Day, which falls on the seventh day of the seventh month on the lunar calendar.

China's Qixi Festival, on the seventh day of the seventh month according to the lunar calendar, is based on a love story of a cowherd and a fairy seamstress.

Niulang, the cowherd, fell in love with a beautiful fairy Zhinu when grazing his cow. But their love was interfered by Wangmu, wife of the Jade Emperor, the Supreme Deity in Taoism. She separated the couple by drawing a river, the Milky Way, with her hairpin between them.

Touched by their love, pied magpies come in flocks every Qixi to form a bridge spanning the galaxy with their bodies so that the couple could meet.

To many Chinese people, Qixi was celebrated as the "lovers' day".

Shanghai saw a hike of rose prices on the day.

"Normally a blossom of red rose is sold at four yuan (US$0.53)," said Mr. Yang working in the Yangyu floral shop, "but now it's priced more than ten yuan (US$1.32). We have hired several people to help deliver the flowers."

In Zhengzhou, capital of China's most populous province Henan, shopkeeper Chen Xiao is busy wrapping up flowers. Pointing at a dozen of notes pasted on the glass behind her, Chen beamed and said, "Flowers of tomorrow have all been ordered."

Li Shaoguang queued for a marriage certificate with his girlfriend. "Today is special to me," he said. "I value the loyalty in traditional love, and I believe the Qixi Festival is our own Valentine's Day."

Qixi doesn't belong to the Han people only. In northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, Alaji bought a ring worth 390 yuan for his girlfriend.

"Today is the anniversary of our encounter," he said. "Coincidentally today is also the Qixi Festival in this year."

In the Shuimogou Park of Urumqi, young people from ethnic minorities like Uygur, Hui, Man and Dong took part in a match-making party.

"Although the story of Qixi sounds far from us, the honest and responsible love is cherished by every ethnic group," said Han Juan, a girl with the Hui ethnic minority.

Some young people chose to celebrate the Qixi Festival in their own way.

In southwest China's Sichuan Province, Ren Yun collected all the affectionate messages sent with her boyfriend in a delicate notebook and decorated it with pink ribbon.

"I would choose material romance like candle light dinner on February 14," said the white collar with a computer company. "But in the Chinese lovers' day, I prefer a more implicit way."
Ren's opinion was shared by Liu Yong, a postgraduate with the department of Chinese Language and Literature of the Fudan University.

"The Qixi Festival is crystallization of the romantic and poetic imagination of Chinese people," Liu said. "If we copy the western Valentine's Day with roses and chocolate, it would be reduced to a commercial tool for businessmen."

The Qixi Festival, listed as an intangible cultural heritage, could be dated back to the middle of Han Dynasty (202 BC to 220 AD).

Scholars and business people at a conference held by the Chinese Folk Literature and Art Society in Beijing has earlier proposed the Qixi Festival be celebrated as "Chinese Valentine's Day" to promote awareness of traditional culture.

However, some other experts saw deeper meaning of Qixi.

"Traditional festivals should not be parody of the western," said Zhao Shu, member of the working committee for the protection of national intangible cultural heritage. "Qixi doesn't only mean lovers' affection, but also stable family and deftness of girls."

"Qixi should play a more important role in maintaining harmony in families and the whole society at large," said Xiong Tieji, a historian with the Huazhong Normal University.

In some regions of China, the festival is still celebrated in traditional ways.

In the typhoon-battered southeast China's Fujian Province, people cooked horsebeans and shared with their neighbors.

"Qixi has been celebrated as a holiday of friendship for nearly a thousand years," said Fang Binggui, an expert in folk custom studies in Fujian.

Local girls prepared fruit and incense as offerings to Zhinu on Qixi, praying to acquire skill in needlecraft.

In south China's Guangdong Province, girls will prepare handicrafts and cultivate mung beans in small boxes before the festival and pray seven times on the festival night to welcome the fairy.

Newlyweds plant trees in a desert during a mass wedding ceremony in Yinchuan, northwest China's Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region, August 19, 2007. Across the country, many activities were organized to celebrate Chinese Valentine's Day, which falls on the seventh day of the seventh month on the lunar calendar.

Eighty-year-old Li Wanhe puts a ring on his wife Chen Linfeng's finger during a ceremony to celebrate Chinese Valentine's Day in Hohhot, Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, August 19, 2007.

Newlyweds in traditional costumes attend a mass wedding ceremony in Heshun, north China's Shanxi Province, August 19, 2007. A variety of activities were organized to celebrate Chinese Valentine's Day, which falls on the seventh day of the seventh lunar month.

(Xinhua News Agency, China Daily, August 20, 2007)