Qixi Festival (Qiqiao Festival)

Chinese national intangible cultural heritage Name: Qixi Festival (Qiqiao Festival)

Applicant: Xihe County, Gansu Province

Project No.: 452

Project No.: Ⅹ - 4

Time of publication: 2008 (second batch)

Category: folk customs

Region: Gansu Province

Type: Extension Project

Applicant: Xihe County, Gansu Province

Protection unit: Xihe County Intangible Cultural Heritage Protection Center

Qixi Festival (Qiqiao Festival)

Applicant: Xihe County, Gansu Province

Qixi Qiqiao folk custom in Xihe County of Gansu Province has rich cultural connotation and remarkable regional characteristics, which mainly spread in Xihe County in the southeast of Gansu Province and Yongxing and Yanguan in Lixian County. It appeared in the Han Dynasty, developed in the Tang and Song Dynasties, and flourished in the Ming and Qing Dynasties. Because of its unique geographical environment and profound historical and cultural accumulation, the folk custom of begging for cleverness has been handed down for a long time in Xihe. In a period of time after the founding of new China, this custom declined due to suppression, and recovered after the reform and opening up.

Xihe Qiqiao folk activities are rich in content and various in forms. They start on the evening of June 30 (the small moon is 29) of the lunar calendar and end on the evening of July 7. They last seven days and eight nights. The whole activity is divided into seven parts: sitting, greeting, sacrificing, worshiping, entertaining, divining and sending.

Xihe Qiqiao Festival is a comprehensive folk custom activity integrating belief, poetry, music, song and dance, and arts and crafts, which has high historical and cultural research value. To explore and protect Xihe Qiqiao folk custom is of great significance to promote the study of social system, lifestyle, folk customs and aesthetic orientation in the era of agricultural civilization, to trace the origin of Chinese civilization and to explore the cultural characteristics of the Western Qin Dynasty.