The Cowherd and the Weaver Girl

In Heaven, the Jade Emperor had a granddaughter named Zhinu (the Weaver Girl), who wove the clouds and rainbows across the sky. Her fabric was so beautiful that it colored the sunrise and sunset. Though divine, she was lonely, weaving endlessly in her celestial workshop.

One day, with her sisters, she descended to Earth to bathe in a river. There, a young cowherd named Niulang saw them and, on the advice of his magical ox, stole Zhinu's feathered robe so she could not return to Heaven.

Unable to return to the sky, Zhinu agreed to marry Niulang. Though their union was unusual - a mortal and an immortal - they loved each other deeply. They had two children, a boy and a girl, and lived in simple happiness tending their farm.

Niulang's ox was no ordinary beast - it was a former celestial being punished by exile. Before it died, the ox told Niulang: "Keep my hide. When danger comes, it will help you."

The Jade Emperor eventually learned that his granddaughter was living as a mortal's wife. Furious at this violation of celestial law, he sent celestial soldiers to retrieve her. Zhinu was dragged back to Heaven, torn from her husband and children.

Niulang remembered the ox's words. He wrapped his children in baskets hung from a carrying pole, put on the ox's hide, and flew into the sky in pursuit of his wife.

Just as Niulang was about to reach Zhinu, the Queen Mother of the West (or the Jade Emperor, in some versions) pulled out her golden hairpin and scratched a river of stars across the sky - the Milky Way (called the Silver River in Chinese). Niulang and Zhinu were separated forever, he on one bank, she on the other.

Across the river of stars they called to each other, their tears falling like rain. But the Silver River could not be crossed, and their hands could not meet.

The separated lovers wept so piteously that even the heavens were moved. The Jade Emperor relented slightly: once a year, on the seventh day of the seventh lunar month, all the magpies in the world would fly up to Heaven and form a bridge of wings across the Milky Way.

On this one night, Niulang and Zhinu can cross the magpie bridge and be reunited. If it rains on Qixi (the Double Seventh Festival), the drops are said to be the tears of the lovers, weeping for joy at their reunion or sorrow at their parting come dawn.

Look up at the summer sky. The star Vega, in the constellation Lyra, is Zhinu the Weaver Girl. Across the Milky Way, the star Altair, in the constellation Aquila, is Niulang the Cowherd. The two small stars beside Altair are their children, still carried in their baskets.

Every year they wait, watching each other across the Silver River, until the magpies come and they can touch once more.