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SEVEN SISTERS FESTIVAL |
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Seventh Moon, Day 7
(August)
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Hong Kong's girls and young lovers have the Seven Sisters Festival all to themselves.
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The festival has its origin in Chinese folklore dating back more than 1,500 years. The legend, features a weaver maid (with six older sisters), who led a lonely life working at her loom throughout the year. Her father, the Heavenly Emperor, felt sorry for her and allowed her to marry a cowherder from across the Milky Way.
After the wedding, she neglected her weaving duties and the Emperor ordered her to return home and visit her husband only once a year - on the seventh day of the seventh moon.
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The celebrations centre on religious rites and feature needlework
competitions. As part of the worship, young women make offerings
to the night sky and the two stars that represent the cowherder
and the maid. They usually present fruit and burn joss sticks and
incense in the open air, chiefly on rooftops, in backyards and gardens
or at Lovers' Stone on Bowen Road in Wan Chai. |
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