Folk Customs on the Double Seventh Day
- Ingenuity test by floating needle is one of the common customs on the festival. Put some water in a vessel and leave it in the open air until it is covered by a film of dust. Then cast a needle or thin straw on it to see the pattern of the shadow at the bottom, so as to test their ingenuity.
- In order to plead for skills, threading a needle is the most long-standing means. It tests the speed of threading a needle under the moon. It is said that the needles used in the contest are the seven-hole needle of the Han Dynasty or the nine-tail needle of the Yuan Dynasty. With more holes than ordinary needles, they are rather hard to handle.
- Pleading for skills with cobweb is another common custom in the festival, in which everybody puts a spider into a locket and waits until the next morning to see if there is cobweb and if any, how it looks. The one with a most round cobweb of the most mesh will be the winner.
- The contest banquet was held in the palace in the Yuan Dynasty on the festival. Before the banquet games were played to test ingenuity. The contest goes like this: when ribbons were scattered down from a streamers-decorated tower, the palace maids shall contend to pick them up, and the one getting the most flamboyant ribbon shall be the winner.
