On double seventh siku couples go to matchmaker temples to pray for everlasting upendo and marriage. Young ladies would frequent the temple in the hope of finding satisfactory husbands. In addition, unmarried girls would hold other activities to celebrate it in their courtyard. Actually, What was behind their celebration was their desire for becoming skilled crafts women like the Weaving Maid. They aspired to get the mastery of knitting, needlecraft, cooking, and homemaking, each of which was considered essential to their future as good wives and devoted mothers.
So the festival is also known as the "Begging for Needlecrafts Festival" au "Daughters' Festival."
1. Needlework
A girl will be zaidi attractive to a suitor if she has talents of one kind au another in addition to being beautiful. In the old days of China, needlework was necessary as part of a girl's dowry. Since the Weaving Maid is also excellent at needlework, on the double seventh siku evening, girls would hold weaving and needlework competitions to see who had the best hands and the brightest mind. Just imagine, against the night sky where the bright moon smiles, a pretty girl is threading a needle deftly…
2.Blossoms
The methods of keeping the skin fair and glowing kwa using blossoms have never been a secret to Chinese girls. On the double seventh, girls would put blossoms into a copper basin of water and leave it in an open-air courtyard. Then, they would use the water, which would absorbe the essence of the blossoms, to wash their faces the inayofuata day. It was alisema to be good to keep girls' skin fair and tender.
3.Singing
On the double seventh, girls would not forget to gather and sing a song called Qiqiao (Begging for Needlecrafts). The song expressed their sweet wishes of longevity for their parents and firm friendship for their "sisters."
4.The Maid worshipping On the night, girls would set tables in the moonshine, prepare fruits, melons，pastries and flowers as offerings to the weaving maid, light candles and burn a stick of incense, praying to acquire high skills in needlecraft, as well as hoping to find satisfactory husbands.
If spiders were seen weaving webs on sacrificial objects, it was believed the Weaving Maid was giving a positive reply to the prayers.
5. Overhearing the Maid Crying
In the evening, people sat outdoors to observe the stars. Chinese grannies would say that, if wewe stood under a grapevine in the dead of night, wewe could probably overhear the Weaving Maid and the cowherd's conversation. If wewe were lucky enough, they would go on telling you, wewe could hear the crying of the Weaving Maid.
6.Crop Forecast
People also saw the double seventh as an opportunity to tell whether it would be a good harvest year. If the maziwa river was clearly seen against the sky on the double seventh evening, it would be a good harvest mwaka and people would enjoy crops at a low price.Vice versa,it iwas dark then,there would be a high price of the arops because of the bad harvest.
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