Qixi Festival Coloring Page for Kids

Qixi Festival, also known as Double Seventh Festival or Chinese Valentine's Day, has been a traditional Chinese romantic festival for over 2,000 years. 

Much like an Asian version of Romeo and Juliet, the story behind Qixi Festival revolves around a pair of star-crossed lovers. Zhinü, a weaver girl, is the daughter of the emperor of heaven, but she fell in love with the humble cowherd Niulang. They got married and had two children before the emperor found out his daughter had been consorting with a lowly human, and forcibly brought her back to heaven. 

Niulang set off in pursuit of Zhinü, but found his way blocked by a massive river that the emperor had cast down between earth and heaven to separate the lovers – we now know this cosmic river as the Milky Way. Standing on either shore, the couple mourned for their doomed love, but the deities were moved by their tears and permitted magpies to fly up to heaven and form a bridge across the river. As the legend goes, Zhinü and Niulang meet once a year on the bridge, on the seventh day of the seventh lunar month.

Before this love story was formed, the Chinese had already noticed the Vega and Altair stars sitting on opposing ends of the Milky Way, which are positioned the closest together on the seventh day of the seventh lunar month. A poem in The Book of Songs from the Western Zhou dynasty named Vega and its neighbouring stars the Weaving Sisters, and Altair the Draught Oxen. This then formed the basis of Zhinü and Niulang as it made its way into common folk stories. There have been numerous iterations of the love story over the centuries, but its core essence remains the same.

WHAT YOU GET: 2 JPGs
1 colouring page

Details:
1 US Letter size 8.5" X 11"  
1 A4 size 210 X 297mm
All images in 200 dpi for excellent print quality.
(Compatible for Ledger or A3 size prints)

Copyright
For personal use only. You are permitted to print the artwork for your own personal use or as a gift. However, reselling, distributing, or using it for commercial purposes is strictly prohibited.