Today,Aug.16 is the Chinese Valentine’s Day of 2010.

The Chinese Valentine’s Day is on the 7th day of the 7th lunar month in the Chinese calendar. Raise your head in evening on this day and gaze at the stars, you will find something romantic going on in the sky.

That is, on this evening, Niu Lang and Zhi Nu will meet on a bridge of magpies across the Milky Way. Chinese grannies will remind children that they would not be able to see any magpies on that evening because all the magpies have left to form a bridge in the heavens with their wings.

The legend has been handed down for nearly 2 millennia. The story has been recorded as far back as the Jin Dynasty (256-420 AD). Poets composed hundreds of verses on the love story and many types of Chinese opera tell the story.

The Chinese people believe that the star Vega, east of the Milky Way, is Zhi Nu and, at the constellation of Aquila, on the western side of the Milky Way, Niu Lang waits for his wife.

Read More:  http://www.herongyang.com/chinese/festivals/chinese_valentine.html