The Cowherd and the Weaver Girl ...

Today is the 7th Day of the 7th Lunar Month or Double Seventh or QiXi (七 夕) ...... and today's festival is for all lovers everywhere who have to stay apart for some reason or another. It is like Valentine's Day but tinge with sadness and farewells ......

The fetsival is to commemorate the love of the The Cowherd and the Weaver Girl who were forced to live apart separated from each other by a vast "spatial" river. They can only meet once a year on this day and the only way they can meet across this vast gulf is when all the swallows in the world flock together to create a bridge of swallows for them to walk to the middle of the river to meet.

As the swallows can only do it once a year, they have to part again before the end of the day ....

Tradition is that it always rain (tears of parted lovers everywhere) on this day :-) and it did, heavily this morning.

So to sad lovers everywhere who are not with their loved ones, remember, there is always a time to meet again !