The Double-Seventh Festival in Dongguan

The Double-Seventh Festival in Dongguan

Nominating Unit: Wangniudun Town, City of Dongguan

The custom of “Worshipping Qijie(the youngest daughter of Empress of the West)” on July 7th of the lunar calendar has been a tradition in Lingnan ever since ancient times. In Wangniudun Town of Dongguan, traditional customs of “Zhi Gong’an (laying a table for worshipping)”, “Bai Qiaowu (displaying delicate food and crafts)” and “Worshipping Qijie” have been carried on from ancient times.(https://www.daowen.com)

The Double-Seventh Festival customs in Wangniudun Town have enjoyed a long history with its unique characteristics. The first characteristic is that “The Double-Seventh Festival actually starts from July 6th of the lunar calendar”. It is at the end of July 6th of the lunar calendar when the worshipping of “Qijie”starts at the worshipping table, which differs from the customs of other places in China, though derived from ancient central plains. The second characteristic is the settling of “Double-Seventh Worshipping Table”, which is the main carrier of the customs. The table is settled by women in town who cover the square table with a piece of red cloth, hanging the apron of goddess, laying various of handmade crafts and figures made from raw materials like indigenous materials and crops on it. With the development of society, the making of the “worshipping table” has been increasingly various in forms, wide-ranging in subjects, delicate in workmanship, lively in style, and bight in color. For example, there must be seven kinds of flowers and fruit, seven pairs of embroidered shoes, seven chairs, seven sets of clothes for “Qijie” on the “worshipping table”, with seven girls doing the worshipping. This is of unique symbolic meaning. The third characteristic is the hand-made model of Niulang (the husband of “Qijie” and Zhinü’s (“Qijie”) reuniting on “Queqiao” (the bridge made of birds) on the “worshipping table”. Such a worship object highlights the strong desire and pursuit for love, which is of unique value for the research on folkloristics, sociology and culture studies.

The worshipping a ctivity was forced to stop during the Cultural Revolution. And now, with the development of the times, the impacts of the modern culture and entertainment have made great changes in the aesthetic ideas of the younger generation, who have gradually lost interests in traditional culture. Few teenage girls of the new generation would like to make the “worshipping table” for the Double-Seventh Festival. Therefore, it is urgent to adopt effective measures to protect and support the customs of the Double-Seventh Festival in Dongguan.