Qixi Festival (Qixi custom in Shitang)

Chinese national intangible cultural heritage Name: Qixi Festival (Qixi custom in Shitang)

Applicant: Wenling City, Zhejiang Province

Project No.: 452

Project No.: Ⅹ - 4

Time of publication: 2011 (the third batch)

Category: folk customs

Region: Zhejiang Province

Type: Extension Project

Applicant: Wenling City, Zhejiang Province

Protection unit: Wenling Cultural Center

Qixi Festival (Qixi custom in Shitang)

Applicant: Wenling City, Zhejiang Province

The custom of Qixi Festival in Shitang is popular in Shitang and Ruoshan along the coast of Wenling, Zhejiang Province. It is a traditional folk activity for children under 16 years old to pray for Qiniang Ma on the day of Qixi Festival. Shitang ancestors moved in from southern Fujian more than three hundred years ago, and this custom has followed, and it still exists today.

Qiniang Ma, also known as "Qixing Niang" and "Tianxian Niang", is the incarnation of Vega. In Southern Fujian, Qiniang Ma is regarded as the patron saint of children.

According to folklore, Qixi is the birthday of Qiniang ma. Children under 16 years old offer sacrifices to Qiniang Ma for blessing. The age of 16 is the dividing line for children to grow up and no longer participate in sacrifice, so this activity is called "Lilliputian day" locally.

The female elders are the chief mourners. The procedure of the ceremony is: from early morning to noon on the seventh day of the lunar new year, families with children set up a table at the door, set up a colorful Pavilion, sedan chair, light candles, put seven wine cups, seven color thread, fresh fruits and vegetables, sugar turtle, knife meat, Suo Jue, zongzi and so on to sacrifice to Qiniang ma. At the end of the sacrifice, firecrackers were set off and colorful pavilions and sedan chairs were burned for the sacrifice of Qi Niang ma.

This custom has distinct cultural characteristics of Southern Fujian, which is connected with the custom of worshiping the weaving girl "qiniangma" in Caiting in Tainan and Kaohsiung of Taiwan. It is of great significance to strengthen the cultural identity and exchange between the two sides of the Taiwan Strait, and also has the living fossil value of the study of the rite of passage in folklore.