介绍:
Qixi Festival (七夕节Double Seventh Festival), the seventh day of the 7th month on the Chinese lunar calendar（农历）, falls on August 20 this year. It celebrates the annual meeting of the cowherd（放牛人） and weaver （编织）girl in Chinese mythology, so it is sometimes called the Chinese Valentine's Day.
The legend has been handed down（流传） for nearly 2 millennia（千年）. It says that on the evening, Niu Lang(牛郎) and Zhi Nu(织女) will meet on a bridge of magpies(喜鹊magpie是单数) across the Milky Way（银河）.
Chinese grannies will remind children that they would not be able to see any magpies on that evening because all the magpies have left to form a bridge in the heavens with their wings.
Romantic Legend
Zhi Nu was said to be the youngest of seven daughters of the Queen of Heaven. With her sisters, she worked hard to weave beautiful clouds in the sky, while Niu Lang was a poor orphan cowherd, driven out of his home（从家里赶出来） by his elder brother and his cruel wife.
Niu Lang lamented over（为。。。感到悲伤） his lonely and poor life with an old cow, his only friend and companion. The magical cow kindly told him of a way to find a beautiful and nice woman as his life companion（终身伴侣）.
Under the direction of the cow, Niu Lang went to the riverside on an evening, where the seven fairies slipped out of（偷溜出来） their heavenly palace to bathe.
He took one of the beautiful silk dresses the fairies had left on the bank（河岸）. When the fairies left the water, the youngest couldn't find her clothes and had to see her sisters fly back to heaven without her.
Then Niu Lang came out with the dress and asked the youngest fairy, Zhi Nu, to stay with him.
Several years passed on Earth, which were only a few days in heaven. Niu Lang and Zhi Nu lived happily together and had two children before the Queen of Heaven discovered Zhi Nu's absence.
She was so annoyed she had Zhi Nu brought back to heaven. Seeing his beloved wife flying in the sky, Niu Lang was terrified. He caught sight of the cowhide（牛皮） hanging on a wall. The magical cow had told him before dying of old age: "Keep the cowhide for emergency use."
Putting the cowhide on, he went after （追随）his wife with his two children.
With the help of the cowhide, Niu Lang was able to follow Zhi Nu into heaven. He was about to（即将要/快要） reach his wife when the Queen showed up and pulled off her hairpin（发夹） to draw a line between the two. The line became the Silver River （银河）in heaven, or the Milky Way.
Zhi Nu went back to the heavenly workshop, going on weaving the clouds. But she was so sad, and missed her husband across the Silver River so much that the clouds she weaved seemed sad. Finally, the Queen showed a little mercy（感到怜悯/发慈悲）, allowing the couple to meet once every year on the Silver River.
Tradition
Unlike St. Valentine's Day in Western countries there is not so much emphasis on giving chocolates, flowers and kisses. Instead, it is an important festival for young girls. Chinese girls prepare fruits, melons and incense as offerings（贡品） to Zhi Nu, the weaving maiden, praying to acquire high skills in needlecraft（针线活手艺）, as well as hoping to find satisfactory husbands.
In the evening, people sit outdoors to observe the stars. Chinese grannies would say that, if you stand under a grapevine（葡萄藤）, you can probably overhear（无意听到/偷听） what Zhi Nu and Niu Lang are talking about.
Pillow fight in SF
Valentine's Day in San Francisco means hundreds of people ditch date night for a little free swinging, feather-flying fun.
We're talking about the great San Francisco Valentine's Day pillow fight held in Justin Herman Plaza.
Valentine's Day often inspires a lot of conflicting emotions (交织在一起的情绪)--love, hate, anger, devotion（忠诚）, betrayal, lust（情欲）, remorse（懊悔自责）, jealousy, pity, pride and, most importantly, the desire to beat the living snot out of complete strangers （看着不爽的陌生人）while suffering no real-life repercussions.（坏的结果-consequence）
Every year, a legion（a large group ） of thousands of the lovelorn (失恋的人) and not-so-lovelorn bring their trusty pillows down to Justin Herman Plaza in front of the Ferry Building and, at the stroke of 6pm（钟敲响6点）, start flailing away at everything in sight.
It's pretty much the perfect Valentine's Day event. It's free, it functions both as a date and a date-free alternative for the dateless and did we mention it's free?
The city spent $35,000 cleaning up the thousands upon thousands of feathers left behind. The pillows will be donated to pets at local homeless shelters （流浪宠物收容所）as well as churches in the area, organization spokeswoman Jennifer Small said.
大家还在听
