YINCHUAN: Scholars here have proposed a Chinese alternative to Valentine's Day which would also promote awareness of traditional culture to counter the increasing Western influence in the world's most populous nation.
China's Qixi festival which falls on Saturday this week is a good alternative to Valentine's Day, they said.
The traditional festival is based on an ill-fated love story involving a cowherd and a fairy seamstress.
Niulang, the cowherd, and Zhinv, the fairy, fell in love and later ascended to the heavens becoming two stars separated by the galaxy.
They could only meet once a year on the seventh day of the seventh month of the lunar calendar, when thousands of magpies form a bridge to allow them to cross the galaxy.
Chinese started to pray for good lives and love on the festival in the middle of Han Dynasty (202 B.C. to 220 A.D.).
The proposal was made by scholars and business people at a conference held by the Chinese Folk Literature and Art Society in Beijing.
"With the rapid development of China's economy, traditional Chinese festivals such as Qixi have faded from the memories of many Chinese," Xinhua news agency quoted Professor Zhang Yiwu, of the prestigious Peking University as saying.
The proposal was expected to reawaken the national memory, and was not a challenge to the Western Valentine's Day marked by many younger generation Chinese each February 14.
Although the Qixi festival never celebrated love, said Liu Zongdi, a scholar in folklore studies, romantic folklore was the best way to promote Chinese traditional festivals.
