Xin Mao Chinese Valentine's Day

Xin Mao Chinese Valentine's Day is as bright as a rainbow. July of 2011 in the Gregorian calendar has come to an end, and what follows is July of the Xin Mao year in the lunar calendar. In the first week of this month, there is one of the most colorful festivals...

Xin Mao Qixi, Qi is like a rainbow July of 2011 in the Gregorian calendar has ended, followed by July of the Xinmao year of the lunar calendar. In the first week of this month, there is a festival that is most familiar to the Chinese people, which is the Chinese Valentine's Day on the seventh day of July, also known as the Qiqiao Festival. On this day, many Chinese women follow the custom and buy paper dowry and other items to worship the Seventh Sister. Legend has it that the Cowherd and the Weaver Girl crossed the Magpie Bridge to meet each other. This is a beautiful and loyal love story that has been passed down through the ages. Some people call it Chinese Valentine's Day. This year’s Chinese Valentine’s Day happens to be the last day for the remaining Australian relatives to gather in Vietnam, and the evening is the time to say goodbye and leave. When I arrived, I celebrated the reunion, and when I left, I played a farewell song. On the day of greeting, I chose the Baguole beef seven-flavor dinner. On the day of farewell, I invited me to have breakfast at Ruyi Restaurant, the former site of the Palace Theater. On the morning of the seventh day of the Lunar New Year, I called my cousin Qiaozhen and explained that according to the original plan, I was invited to have breakfast at Ruyi Restaurant, which was a farewell banquet for this Vietnamese gathering. I instructed to call a taxi from the Saigon Hotel, go straight down the embankment along Tran Hung Road, turn right at Zhao Guangfu Street, get off at Sanshan Hall, and walk across the street. I drove a motorcycle to carry Taizu from my residence on Binh Tai Street in District 11. I passed by the racecourse and Dashui Wok Hospital and turned to the Apo Temple on Nguyen Lai Street. I reached my destination as soon as I turned the corner. When I set out, the sky was gray and slightly covered with rain clouds. It was natural to think of the myths and legends of Chinese Valentine's Day. I heard the women in the neighborhood telling them in unison that it must rain on this day every year for the Seventh Sister's birthday! Those are the tears of the Cowherd and the Weaver Girl. Husband and wife are only allowed to reunite once a year. They cry with joy when they meet, and cry with sadness when they break up. The tears fall from the sky and become raindrops on earth. The hazy weather now is a manifestation of a depressed mood and a desire to cry without tears. Although such unfounded legends are told vividly and vividly, it is absolutely true that it rains on this day every year. look! The weather has become gloomy in the morning, and it looks like the Cowherd and the Weaver Girl are about to cry. Do you want to believe it or not? Just leave it as a coincidence, it always enhances the holiday story. Regardless of the legend of the Cowherd and the Weaver Girl, on this Chinese Valentine's Day morning, at the Ruyi Restaurant, it was my husband and I and my Australian cousins ​​Qiaozhen, Qiaozhu, Qiaofeng and Lixing. The six of us sat at the same table, enjoying tea, coffee, milk tea, snacks, crispy roasted chicken noodles, oyster sauce barbecued pork buns and listening to the Friendship Opera Club's singing program. There was no Cantonese opera performance with gongs and drums on this day, only Cantonese minor tunes and period songs were sung. Qiaozhu said that she came to Vietnam this time and was busy traveling, so she had not appreciated my singing yet. Tomorrow is far away, and she didn’t know when we would meet again. She asked me to sing a few songs for him, as a farewell song, so that she could slowly reflect on it and think about it carefully after returning to Sydney. She wanted to listen to "One Water Separates the World", and also wanted to hear me sing a Mandarin song and a Vietnamese song. All right! With such interest and sentiment, I had no choice but to be respectful and obey his orders. I first fulfilled his singing request and sang "One Water Across the World". Maybe the lyrics in it were "I don't know when we will meet again." The song had a wistful charm. Then came the song "My Chinese Heart" that overseas travelers love: "Even if I was born in a foreign country, my Chinese heart can't be changed"; continued with "Laughing and Watching the Wind and Clouds" that "lives happily and does not hold grudges"; and finally came the Vietnamese song: "On the Road Back Home". We all set foot on the road to the embankment area where we were born again. Talking in detail, chatting, singing, clapping, getting together, scattering, clutching together, time flies by, looking out from the wide windows and doors of the building, I saw drizzle flowers suddenly falling from the sky, ah! The Cowherd and the Weaver Girl were crying, but they stopped quickly. I told these in-laws that today is the day when the Cowherd and the Weaver Girl meet, and we are also having a farewell party at this time, which is almost the same as the meaning of the festival. You will fly back to Australia in the evening. I will return to the United States next month. We are so far apart. I don’t know when we will meet again. The Cowherd and the Weaver Girl meet regularly on Chinese Valentine's Day every year. Although the Queen Mother is cruel, there is still a deadline and there is hope. However, our separation has failed to determine the date of our next reunion. It's a bit melancholy to think about it! At noon, the banquet broke up and after leaving the restaurant, they had to return to the hotel to pack their last luggage. My husband and I went home to rest for a while until about three o'clock in the afternoon, when we went to the hotel where they stayed in Sai Kung to talk again and say goodbye. Throughout the afternoon, the Cowherd and the Weaver Girl cried intermittently, and the sky continued to drift with gentle breeze and drizzle, adding to the melancholy feeling of parting! Time flies, and the hotel attendant has summoned a taxi to help carry the luggage. After shaking hands and saying goodbye, my in-laws repeatedly asked me to greet me well when I travel to Australia next year. I sincerely invite you to come to Phoenix on 11/11/11 to attend my son’s wedding! But all of them are empty talk and completely unpredictable. The actual action at hand is to watch them get on the bus, wish them a safe journey, and truly wave goodbye! Completed in Ticeng, Vietnam in early August 2011