If one were to look for a traditional festival that comes closest to Valentine’s Day, it would be QiXi Festival. Associated with the popular story of the “牛郎织女“， QiXi still shows endless vitality in modern society.
What is QiXi Festival and What is its History?
In China, the seventh day of the seventh month of the lunar calendar is commonly known as QiXi Festival, also known as the “Begging Festival” or “Daughter’s Day”, which is one of the most romantic traditional Chinese festivals and is also the most important day for girls in the past.
According to legend, in ancient times, the Emperor’s granddaughter “织女” was good at weaving, weaving colorful haze into the sky every day. She hated this boring life, so she secretly went down to the mortal world and married a “牛郎” from the west of the river, living a life of male farming and female weaving.
This angered the emperor, who took the weaver back to the palace and ordered them to separate, allowing them to meet only once a year on the seventh day of the seventh month of the lunar calendar on the magpie bridge, which always occurs in August. Their steadfast love touched the magpies, and countless magpies flew in and used their bodies to build a magpie bridge across the heavenly river, allowing the Cowherd and the Weaving Maid to meet on the river.
The ancient Chinese commemorated their great love by positioning a day for lovers to meet on that day. This is like the Western Valentine’s Day. Here is the coming Qixi Day until 2025:
- 2022 – August 4th
- 2023 – August 22nd
- 2024 – August 10th
- 2025 – August 29th
QiXi Activities – Ancient vs. Modern
QiXi Day in the Ancien Tradition…
In ancient times, there is a custom on the day of QiXi, called the seeds of birth to seek children. It is to soak corn, soybeans, etc. in water before the QiXi, so that it sends out small green buds, and then tied up with colored threads on the day of QiXi, to seek children for good fortune.
The QiXi is also known as “begging”, the ancient people prayed for good love at the same time, more women prayed to have the most skillful hands, to do the best female red. The ancient people’s expression of love is very subtle, such as sending letters, sending purses, sending handkerchiefs, etc.
Of course, the ancient people in the QiXi also have the custom of listening to whispers under the moon, two people do not say anything more, quietly enjoying the moon listening to the language, currently silent than the sound.
… Reinvented Qixi Festival Today
On the contrary, in our modern society, the expression of love is more direct, many people will choose to say their feelings out loud, so the day of QiXi became a large confession site. The gift link is also a test for boys, flowers and chocolates are essential, and candlelight dinner is the icing on the cake.
QiXi is the pursuit of beauty, both ancient and modern people, the way to spend QiXi is far less precious than the company of lovers.
The Commercial Value of the QiXi Festival for Brands
The modern Chinese, as the level of consumption and the concept of change, “buy buy buy” has become an essential part of the Chinese people, men and women sending each other gifts have also become the norm to express love.
Big Brand Eve Limited Editions
Because of the preferences of the Chinese consumer group, the QiXi Festival is more inclined to send brand gifts, which is also a trend. Majority of fashion brands decide to launch limited editions for this special festival, surrounding their marketing campaign with a way to share love.
Many brands scrambled to launch a Valentine’s Day series, then in the QiXi hair hearts, clothing, bags, jewelry, and many other categories. For example, Gucci this year launched a cute cartoon GG Apple vividly decorated in the iconic handbag and accessories series, dedicated to QiXi Valentine’s Day. In 2022, there are many different luxury campaigns capturing hearts in China.
Apples are often associated with love in both Eastern and Western legends or seen as a presence with magical powers. For example, in ancient Greek legend, Hera, the mother of the gods, received an apple tree from Gaia, the goddess of the earth, at her wedding, so the apple symbolized “long and continuous love” in Greece. Gucci combines the Western symbol of love, the apple, with the Chinese Valentine’s Day theme, tailor-made for the upcoming QiXi Festival!
Our Campaign with the Goddess of the Moon: Jacques Lemans x GMA
Jacques Lemans is a premium watch brand from Austria with almost 50 years of existence in the watch industry. They work with us for marketing, online reputation, and e-commerce in mainland China. For the Qixi Day in 2022, we decided to highlight several collections while focusing on their star watch in mainland China: the Goddess of the Moon. This product nickname was given by a regular user on Xiaohongshu, hence the importance of UGC (User Generated Content) for your brand awareness in China.
For the reunion of the two lovers on Qixi, we decided to go along with the Design Collection and the storytelling behind the Goddess of the Moon watch. Escaping from Heaven, the stars and the moon are protecting her journey, for the dear lovers to be soon reunited.
QiXi Festival and WeChat Linkage
WeChat is a great way to take the creativity a step further through WeChat mini-programs. SK-II on the eve of the seventh day of the year, the joint Jingdong to create an online virtual city SK-II CITY, consumers can hang out in the virtual city, in the virtual cinema advertising film, to understand the behind-the-scenes story of the shooting of the advertising film, and even directly watch the jump to the official store Mugra in the small program for interactive lottery activities, consumers can draw “heart ” to launch the prize of the raffle.
In the WeChat issue of the QiXi custom poster mini-game, users can purchase through the selection of their own jewelry. The way to customize the QiXi poster.
The mini-programs and services launched during QiXi are good examples of brands changing their previous offline marketing strategies and using digital media. The shopping scene of the story provides a more satisfying experience for consumers, and the differentiation also meets the sensory and personalized consumption demands of young consumers.
With QiXi coming up, how do you want to embrace the Chinese market?
The 4th of August 2022 marks the annual Chinese Valentine’s Day.
Indeed, there are many opportunities to find an audience in the Chinese market during this time. located in Shanghai, China, GMA has been dedicated to digital marketing and is able to quickly orient brands and understand the buying habits of Chinese consumers, and we have created numerous success stories. We have a professional team to answer your questions, from market research, and business consulting to actual marketing implementation. A sneak peek into our design and activation for 2022 Qixi Day:
If you are interested in the Chinese market and strong marketing campaign for the coming festivals in China, don’t hesitate to contact us