⽆忧考英语资源频道为⼤家整理的七⼣情⼈节英⽂介绍：七⼣故事的由来双语版，供⼤家阅读参考。
Legend has it that on this evening, Niulang, or the Cowherd, and Zhinu, or the Weaving Maid, meet each other for their annual tryst on a bridge formed by sympathetic magpies over the Milky Way. If it happens to rain that night, a Chinese elder might say it is Zhinu weeping after meeting her husband Niulang on the Milky Way.
This day used to be commemorated as a festival for girls and also for young people in love. As the story goes, there was once a cowherd, Niulang, who lived with his elder brother and sister-in-law. But his sister-in-law disliked and abused him, and the boy was forced to leave home with only an old cow for company.
The cow, however, was a former god who had violated celestial rules and had been sent to earth in bovine form. One day he led Niulang to a lake where fairies came bathe on earth; among them was Zhinu, the most beautiful girl and a skilled seamstress. The two fell in love at first sight and were soon married. They had a son and a daughter, and their happy life was held up as an example for hundreds
of years in China.七月的天空
Yet in the eyes of the Jade Emperor, the Supreme Deity in Taoism, marriage between a mortal and a fairy was strictly forbidden. He sent his empress to fetch Zhinu. Niulang grew desperate when he discovered Zhinu had been taken back to heaven. Driven by Niulang's misery, the cow told him to turn its hide into a pair of shoes after it died.
The magic shoes whisked off Niulang, who carried his two children in baskets strung from a shoulder pole, off on a chase after the empress. The pursuit enraged the empress, who took her hairpin and slashed it across the sky, creating the Milky Way which separated husband from wife. But all was not lost. An army of magpies, moved by their love and devotion, formed a bridge across the Milky Way to reunite the family. Even the Jade Emperor was touched and allowed Niulang and Zhinu to meet once a year on the seventh night of the seventh month. It is said that at that night, children can hear the private conversation between the Weaving Maid and the Cowherd under the grape trellis. This is how Qixi came to be.
In actuality, the festival can be traced back to the Han Dynasty (206 BC-AD 220). People would traditionally look up at the sky and spot a bright star in the constellation Aquila, as well as the star Vega, identified as Niulang and Zhinu. The two stars shine on opposite sides of the Milky Way.
Qixi is also known as the "Begging for Skills Festival" or "Daughters' Festival." In the past, girls would hold ceremonies on the day and pray to Zhinu for wisdom, dexterity and a satisfying marriage. In some parts of Shandong Province, young women would offer fruit and pastries to her in return for a blessing of intelligence. If spiders were seen to weave webs on sacrificial objects, it was believed that Zhinu was offering positive feedback. In other parts of China, the custom was for seven close friends to gather to make dumplings. They would put into three separate dumplings a needle, a copper coin and a red date, which represented perfect needlework skills, good fortune and an early marriage respectively.
Young women in southern China wove small handicrafts with colored paper, grass and thread. Weaving and needlework competitions would be held to see who had the best hands and the brightest mind, prerequisites for being a good wife and mother.
However, these ancient traditions and customs have been slowly dying out. Fewer people than ever gaze at the heaven on that day to pick out the two stars shining bright on either side of the Milky Way -- that is, if they even know on which day Qixi falls.
七⼣坐看牵⽜织⼥星，是民间的习俗，相传，在每年的这个夜晚，是天上织⼥与⽜郎在鹊桥相会之时。
织⼥是⼀个美丽聪明、⼼灵⼿巧的仙⼥，凡间的妇⼥便在这⼀天晚上向她乞求智慧和巧艺，也少不了向她求赐美满姻缘，所以七⽉初七也被称为乞巧节。
⼈们传说在七⼣的夜晚，抬头可以看到⽜郎织⼥的银河相会，或在⽠果架下可偷听到两⼈在天上相会时的脉脉情话。
⼥孩们在这个充满浪漫⽓息的晚上，对着天空的朗朗明⽉，摆上时令⽠果，朝天祭拜，乞求天上的⼥神能赋予她们聪慧的⼼灵和灵巧的双⼿，让⾃⼰的针织⼥红技法娴熟，更乞求爱情婚姻的姻缘巧配。过去婚姻对于⼥性来说是决定⼀⽣幸福与否的终⾝⼤事，所以，世间⽆数的有情男⼥都会在这个晚上，夜静⼈深时刻，对着星空祈祷⾃⼰的姻缘美满。
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