Long ago, there was a boy who was clever, diligent and honest. Orphaned at an early age, he was very poor. He adopted an abandoned old buffalo, which
proved to be very loyal and helped him a lot with his hard labor in the fields. The two had a very good relationship, and were seen together all the time.
Villagers from near and far came to know him as the cowherd.
At the same time, the youngest of the seven celestial princesses had grown tired of the privileged and secluded life of the heavenly palace. She longed for the
worldly life she often saw down beneath her. It was a strange idea for a celestial princess to have. Yet, determined to pursue what she deemed to be her own
happiness, she sneaked out and descended to the earth. She met the cowherd and fell in love with him.
They married and had a lovely boy and a beautiful girl. While the cowherd worked in the fields with the buffalo, the heavenly princess wove at home to help
support the family. Villagers all admired her excellent weaving skills and started learning from her. She was now known as the Weaving Girl.
It is well known that a day in heaven is the same as years on earth. The family lived moderately but peacefully and happily until the girl's celestial royal family
found her missing and traced her to the village. The years she had spent with the cowherd were but a day or so by the celestial calendar.
The Celestial Empress was so enraged that she gave her daughter only two choices: to return home or see her husband and children destroyed. She had to
leave.
The old buffalo suddenly began to speak to the young man, saying that he was dying and asking him to use his hide as a vehicle to catch up with his wife. So
the cowherd got up to heaven taking his young son and daughter in two baskets.Fearing that the young man would catch up, the empress took out her hairpin and drew a big river across the sky, known to the Chinese as the Silver River
(the Milky Way in the West). She wanted to separate the family forever.
However,all the magpies in the world, deeply touched by the story, came to their rescue. Each year, on the seventh day of the seventh month in lunar
calendar, they flock together to form a bridge so that the family may enjoy a brief reunion.
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