The Lovers Across the Silver River
Chinese legend says two stars are lovers separated by the Milky Way. Once a year, magpies form a bridge so they can meet, and rain that night is their tears.
What was reported
In the Chinese legend of the Cowherd and the Weaver Girl, a heavenly weaver fell in love with a mortal cowherd and married him. When the gods found out, the Queen Mother of the West drew a line across the sky with her hairpin, creating the Silver River, the Milky Way, to keep them apart.
Once a year, on the seventh day of the seventh lunar month, all the magpies of the world fly up and form a bridge so the lovers can meet. They are the stars Vega and Altair, on either side of the Milky Way.
Explanations offered
The story has been told since at least the Han dynasty and gave rise to the Qixi Festival, now a kind of Chinese Valentine's Day. It spread to Japan as Tanabata and to Korea as Chilseok. Vega and Altair really do lie on either side of the Milky Way.
- When
- Told for more than 2,000 years; every seventh day of the seventh month
- Where
- Xi'an, Shaanxi, China
- Witnesses
- Chinese legend
- Status
- Legend
Famous cases are real, widely reported events. Each file sets out what witnesses said and the explanations that have been offered, without taking a side.
More from Shaanxi