The Cowherd and the Weaver Girl

Chinese lovers gaze at the summer sky to find the sorrowful lovers of the Qixi legend, said to have first been told in the ancient heartland along the Yellow River. Zhinu, a heavenly weaver girl and daughter of the Queen Mother of the West, descends to earth and falls in love with Niulang, a humble cowherd. They marry in secret and raise two children in quiet happiness, but when the goddess discovers her granddaughter living as a mortal wife, she draws a river of stars across the heavens to separate them forever. Moved by their grief, a flock of magpies takes pity and forms a bridge with their wings, allowing the couple to reunite for a single night each year. That reunion falls on the seventh day of the seventh lunar month, the Qixi Festival, celebrated as China's day of romance. Astronomers recognise the parted lovers as the stars Vega and Altair, split by the shimmering band of the Milky Way. The tale endures as a tender meditation on devotion tested by distance and fate.