宜蘭縣青年公共事務協會

Chinese Lover's Day
Chinese Lover's Day comes from a story about a love affair between the Girl Weaver, granddaughter of the Heavenly Emperor, and a human named Cowherd. They married and had two children, but eventually the Emperor feared that the marriage would separate their heavenly family and ordered his granddaughter home. She returned reluctantly, but Cowherd pursed her carrying their two children in baskets balanced at either end of a bamboo shoulder pole. 

However, the Heavenly Goddess Xi Wangmu, stopped the chase by pointing her hairpin, and forming a river bridge across the river once a year on the 7th day of the 7th month to allow the lovers to reunite briefly, and this day is celebrated every year as Chinese Lovers Day.

The story originated form stargazers over 2,000 years ago, and in the night sky, the feathery bridge is the Milky Way, separating 2 stars, Vega, representing the Girl Weaver, and Altair, which represents Cowherd. Two small stars on either side of Altair are the two children in their baskets. In Chinese societies over the years, when married couples have had to live apart for work, others have often said that these couples were leading a Cowherd-and-Girl-Weaver life.