Falling on the seventh day of the seventh lunar month, the Qixi Festival, also widely known as Double Seventh Festival, takes place on August 14 this year.

While Valentine’s Day is celebrated in many countries on Feb. 14, the Qixi Festival is regarded as being China's Valentine's Day.

However, the Qixi Festival is more than Chinese Valentine’s Day.

It was initially to highlight people’s worship of nature and women’s domestic skills. Only later did it become associated with romance thanks to a popular folktale of an ill-fated love between a cowherd and a weaving maid.

Chinese people, nowadays, still prepare offerings and enjoy the traditional fruit biscuits on this special day, not only just to celebrate love but to show their awe for the beauty of nature and to ask for wisdom and fortune.

We wish you happy the Qixi Festival! If you don’t have a loved one, love yourself first and wait for true love.

(By Fanying)