Chinese Valentine’s Day, called Qi Xi (七夕) in China, is a traditional holiday celebrated on the 7th day of the 7th month on the Chinese calendar.
Other names for the holiday are Magpie Festival, or Double Sevens.
The universal theme of forbidden love appears in the tale explaining the holiday:
A celestial woman (Zhi Nu, the weaver) and a mortal man (Niu Lang, the cow-herder) are star crossed lovers now fated to meet only once a year on a bridge of magpies across the sky.
Legend of the Weaver and the Cow-herder:
The story has been recorded as far back as the Jin Dynasty.
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.