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China News Service, Beijing, August 10th, Title: "Showing books" on the Qixi Festival: Showing traditions and innovations

Author: Zhou Xin and Wu Yue

At the Liang Zhu Cultural Park in Ningbo, Zhejiang, seven girls are playing different roles, trying to restore the makeup of the characters in the "Qi Qiao Tu" by the Ming Dynasty painter Qiu Ying. They are dressed in gauze shirts and dresses, with double hanging buns on their heads, and spread out yellowed ancient books and scrolls with their hands on the round bluestone table.

These are the girls from the "Heyi Chinese Style Study Group" celebrating a different kind of Chinese Valentine's Day by "showing off their books".

Every year on the seventh day of the seventh lunar month, people talk about the legend of "Cowherd and Weaver Girl" with great relish. However, July 7th has also been the "Book Drying Festival" since ancient times.

The "drying" of drying books follows the laws of nature.

According to legend, the practice of drying books on the Qixi Festival evolved from drying clothes. Cui Shi of the Eastern Han Dynasty wrote in "Monthly Orders for the Four People": "On the seventh day of the seventh month, dry scriptures and clothes in the sun to prevent them from being worm-eaten."

Why choose the seventh day of the seventh lunar month to "dry books"? The answer may be related to the weather.

"The weather is clear and cool in autumn with low humidity, so books (especially ancient bamboo slips) won't burst or words fade due to excessive temperatures and exposure to the sun," Duan Huaiqing, professor of the Chinese Department of Fudan University, told China News Service.