July 7 is Chinese Valentine’s Day from the ancient story of Niulang and Zhinv. Niulang was a poor cowherd who fell in love and married the beautiful fairy princess Zhinv. They lived happily together and had two children.

When the Goddess of Heaven found out, she ordered Zhinv to return. Heartbroken Niulang killed his ox, put on his skin and took his two children off to find their wife and mother. The Goddess of Heaven was so angry, she took a hairpin and scratched a wide river in the sky (the Milky Way) to separate the two lovers.

But once a year all the magpies in the world would take pity on them and fly up into heaven to form a bridge (鹊桥, “the bridge of magpies”, Què qiáo) over the star Deneb in the Cygnus constellation so the lovers may be together for a single night, which is the seventh night of the seventh moon.