TheDouble Seventh Festival, also known as the Qixi Festival, is a traditionalChinese festival. Here is a beautiful story1it.
Long,long ago, there was a young man named Niulang. One day, he2abeautiful girl— zhinǚ, the Goddess's seventh daughter. Shehad just run away from the boring heaven (天堂)to look for fun on Earth. Zhinǚsoon3 Niulang, and they got married without tellingthe Goddess. They lived a happy life on Earth and gave birth to two children.Unluckily, the Goddess soon found out the fact and4 Zhinǚ toreturn to heaven. With the help of his magic cow. Niulang flew to heaven withhis children to look for his wife. The Goddess discovered this and was very5.Taking out her hairpin(发簪), the Goddess created a wide riverin the sky to separate (分开)the two6.From then on, Niulang andZhinǚ had to live7onthe two sides of the river. However, their true love touched all the magpies (喜鹊) in the world,8 once a year tens of thousands of magpies wouldfly up to heaven to make a bridge ("the bridge of magpies") for thecouple to meet each other. At last, the Goddess allowed9 to meet each year on the 7th day of the 7thlunar month. That's10the Double Seventh Festival started.Today, it is a great day for Chinese young people to express their love.