Residential buildings celebrate Valentine's Day in Nanning. (Photo : Getty Images)
Aside from celebrating the day of cupid on Feb. 14, Chinese also celebrate the Chinese Qixi Festival which falls on the seventh day of the seventh lunar month.
The third celebration of Valentine's Day is called the Lantern Festival, which falls on Feb. 11. This holiday is quantified as the real Chinese Valentine's Day because, traditionally, this is the day when women meet their male suitors.
One Chinese bachelor said, "Although I heard the festival was about romance in the ancient times, the festival for me is a time for family reunion. Usually, I will visit my parents and other relatives, sitting around eating glutinous rice balls."
Many believe that the Chinese Valentine's Day is just an occasion maximized by companies to sell more products.
The young man added, "Only gift vendors who want to make a profit on Lantern Festival would dare celebrate it as Chinese Valentine's Day."
One expert from the China Folklore Society, Wu Bing'an said that festivals should "not be merely considered as a holiday or purchase season, but instead we should understand the spirit of the festival and cherish good virtues celebrated during them."
Commercialism is especially high during Qixi, which is actually a celebration of the tragic legend of the cowherd and the weaver girl who were fated to be apart.
Charles Liu, editor of thenanfang.com, noted that the beautiful legend of Qixi is ruined by the pressure brought about by commercialism.
He wrote, "A romantic candlelight dinner and a dozen roses have come to symbolize the annual meeting of the cowherd and the weaver girl."
"Still, peer pressure is enormous. If one guy gives flowers to his girl on one of China's Valentine's Days, other people are going to expect the same, leading to repeated behavior no matter the reasoning," he added.
