The six-day "Qixi," or "Plead for Skills Festival" opens to celebrate China's traditional Valentine's Day in Zhu Village, southern China's Guangdong Province, on Sunday, August 23, 2009.[Photo: xkb.com.cn]
To celebrate this year's Chinese Valentine's Day, or Qixi Festival that falls on Wednesday, August 26, villagers in Zhu village of southern China's Guangdong province, held a weaving and needlework competition as well as an adulthood ceremony for girls on the past Sunday, China Photo Press (CFP) reported.
The six-day "Qixi" traditional festival, whose name translates to "Plead for Skills Festival," is considered a Chinese day for lovers and falls on the seventh day of the seventh lunar month on the Chinese calendar -this year, August 26.
Girls and women dressed up in traditional Chinese robes and held incense to mark the opening ceremony of the festival, which in ancient China was a special day for girls as well as lovers.
Young girls traditionally demonstrated their skills in folk arts on this day, so as to show off their talents, also prerequisites for making a good wife and mother.
Children learn how to make handicrafts during the Chinese Valentine's Day in Zhu Village on Sunday, August 23, 2009. [Photo: xkb.com.cn]
Women in Zhu Village deftly thread needles during the Chinese Valentine's Day on Sunday, August 23, 2009, to display the weaving and needlework competitions of the ancient "Qixi Festival." [Photo: xkb.com.cn]
Villagers hold an adulthood ceremony for girls on Sunday, August 23, 2009, as part of the Qixi Festival in Zhu Village. [Photo: xkb.com.cn]
