Wednesday 6 August 2014

Summer Love

I'm a little late with this, but better late than never!

The Qixi festival (七夕), takes place on the seventh day of the seventh lunar month. The festival has evolved from an ancient tradition of celebrating women's skills at handcrafts and needlework to becoming a commericalised "Chinese Valentine's Day", which emphasises more about love and romance.  Even though the legend behind this festival involves the separation of a couple, the original focus of the tradition was on the the weaving skill that Weaver Maiden (织女) brought down from heaven and taught to the common folk.  There's nothing wrong with celebrating love and romance, but it's also good to know the original context of the festival.

This year the festival took place last Saturday, August 2nd.  We did not do much with it apart from learning it is celebrated in modern day China:


and eating symbolic food that goes with the festival to represent sweetness and happiness: a fruit salad made up of seven different types of fruit.  I used the following:
  1. kiwi
  2. pear
  3. honeydew melon
  4. blueberry
  5. peach
  6. watermelon
  7. mango

If I were more organised, I would probably have found some needlework or craft to go with this festival, but I'm on my summer break (that's my excuse for this year)!


This post is linked up to:
  1. Creative Kids Culture Blog Hop #18
  2. The Homeschool Mother's Journal (8/2/14)
  3. Hip Homeschool Hop - 8/5/14
  4. Finishing Strong - Homeschooling the Middle & High School Years Week 24
  5. History and Geography Meme #128 
  6. Home Ed Link Up Week 10
  7. Weekly Wrap-Up: The one with all the stuff that's working

8 comments:

  1. Hwee,

    The fruit salad looks delicious. When I saw the photo in my feed my mouth watered! Your post has brought a little summer into my winter's day. I hope you're enjoying the break!

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    Replies
    1. Thanks, Sue! It always seems strange to me to think that Australia is having the opposite season to ours at any time! I am indeed enjoying my break (with lots of planning going on). :-) I hope you're having fun where you are. I can't think of winter just yet!

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  2. I learned so much from this post and that fruit salad looks SO good!

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    Replies
    1. I'm glad you've enjoyed reading this post, Phyllis. The fruit salad is perfect for summer! :-)

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  3. I think that's a perfectly valid excuse......

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  4. That fruit salad looks delish! Thanks for linking up with Creative Kids Culture Blog Hop.

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    Replies
    1. The fuit salad is indeed delicious, and very easy to make! Thanks for stopping by and for leaving your kind comment. :-)

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