First Day Cover
首日封
Sobrescrito de 1.º Dia
ChinaChinese Folklore - The Cowherd and the Weaving Maid
Date of Issue : 16 August 2010
(on the 1st FDC)
4-1 : Dress-Linked Affection
4-2 : Happy Lovers
(on the 2nd FDC)
4-3 : Carrying Children to Chase Wife
4-4 : Heavenly Reunion
The Cowherd and the Weaving Maid is a widely known folk legend of romance in China, which was born in the Spring and Autumn Period (770-476B.C.), lyricized in the Han Dynasty's "Nineteen Ancient Poems", and enriched in the following ages. The legend has it that when the heavenly weaving maid descended to the world and bathed in a pool, a cowherd hid her dress but was trapped, so they met and fell in love with each other. After they were married, they had two children - a boy and a girl. But the Queen of Heaven was upset. She retrieved the maid and even drew a line in the sky with a hairpin, which become a raging river (Milky Way) blocking the cowherd (Altair) from chasing the weaving maid (Vega). Afterwards, they were only allowed to be reunited on the seventh day of the seventh lunar month each year, hence the traditional Chinese festival Double Seventh Day. The festival was inscribed on China's National Intangible Cultural Heritage List in 2006.
No comments:
Post a Comment