|  Most Chinese remember being told this romantic tragedy when they were children on Qixi,or the Seventh Night Festival,which falls onthe seventh day of the seventh lunar month,which is usually in early August.
The cow,however ,was a former god who had violated imperial rules and was sent to earth in bovine from.
One dau the cow led Niulang to a lake where fairies took a bath on earth. Among them was Zhinv,the most beautiful fairy and a skiiled seamstress.
The two fell in love at the first sight and were soon married.They had a son and daughter and their happy life was held up as an example for hundreds of years in China.
Yet in the eyes of jade Emperor,the Suoreme Deity in Taoism,marriage between a mortal and fairy was strictly forbidden,He sent the empress to fetch Zhinv.
Liulang grew desperate when he discovered Zhinv had been taken back to heaven,Driven by Niulang's misery,the cow told him to turn its hide into a pair of shoes after it died.
The magic shoes whisked Niulang ,who carried his two children in baskets strung from a shoulder pole,off in a chase after empress.
The pursuit enraged the empress,who took her hairpin and slashed it across the sky creating the Millky Way which separated husband from wife.
But all was not the lost as magpies,moved by their love and devotion,formed a bridge across Millke Way to reunite the family.
Even the Jade Emperor was touched,and allowed Niulang and Zhinv to meed once a year on the seventh night of seventh month.
This is how Qixi came to be. The festival can be tracked back to the Han Dynasty(206 BC-AD220).
Traditionally,people would look up at the sky and find a bright star in the constellation Aquila as well as the star Vega,which are identified as NiuLang and Zhinv.
The two stars shine on opposite sides of the Millky Way.
The love story of Niulang and Zhinv,and the Qixi Festival have been handed down for denerations.yet these ancient traditions and customs are slowly dying out.
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