Wednesday marks the Qixi Festival, the Chinese Valentine's Day. According to legend, a fairy called the Weaver Maid incurs the wrath of Heaven when she marries a mortal cowherd. The lovers are allowed to meet only once a year on this day, along the Milky Way. And romance is in the air for modern Chinese.

Qixi falls on the seventh day of the seventh month on the Chinese lunar calendar. It's traditional for young girls demonstrate their domestic skills and pray for a good husband.

People in many parts of China will place fruit outside their windows this evening to pay homage to the Weaver Maid, represented by the star Vega. Scholars say these activities originated over two thousand years ago in the Han Dynasty.

(CCTV August 27, 2009)