Today is the 7th day of the 7th month of the Lunar Calendar. A beautiful Chinese legend says it is the day a man and wife separated by the Milky Way are having their once-in-a-year reunion thanks to a bridge made by thousands of sympathetic magpies. Nowadays they dub this day "Chinese Valentine's Day" and celebrate it with bouquets of roses plus, perhaps, expensive candle-light fusion dinners, and thus take the deeply deeply romantic touch away.
A poem of Qin Guan from the Song Dynasty is believed to be the best for this occasion.
Clouds float like works of art；
Stars shoot with grief at heart.
Across the Milky Way the Cowherd meets the Maid
When Autumn’s golden wind embraces dews of jade，
All the love scenes on earth，however many， fade
Their tender love flows like a stream；
This happy date seems but a dream.
Can they bear a separate homeward way?
If love between both sides can last for age，
Why need they stay together night and day?
纤云弄巧，飞星传恨，银汉迢迢暗度。金风玉露一相逢，便胜却人间无数。
柔情似水，佳期如梦，忍顾鹊桥归路！两情若是久长时，又岂在朝朝暮暮！