This year & the next celebration
When is Qixi?
24 days ago
Qixi 2026
19 August 2026Open this calendar month →330 days away
Qixi 2027
8 August 2027Open this calendar month →Meaning & living traditions
What is Qixi?
The Weaver Girl’s evening
The traditional story tells of lovers separated by the Milky Way who meet across a bridge of magpies. This legendary imagery helps explain Qixi’s modern association with romance.
Asking for skill
Girls and young women traditionally sought dexterity and demonstrated handiwork. Needle-threading contests and crafted offerings made skill and ingenuity visible parts of the occasion.
Regional forms of celebration
The festival’s practices vary by place. Regional foods such as Zhejiang’s qiaoguo accompany traditions of making and offering crafted objects, giving the date meanings beyond a celebration for couples.
Preparing for the seventh evening
Historical accounts describe markets selling Qiqiao supplies from early in the seventh lunar month, with streets growing busier as the festival approached. Preparing the display was part of the occasion: Qixi involved shopping, making and anticipating the evening, rather than only watching the sky.
Miniature worlds in Guangzhou
In Guangzhou’s Zhu Village, elaborate displays put small-scale craftwork at the centre of the celebration. A documented 2021 display included mesh flowers, beadwork and a beaded model of the Canton Tower. Inherited techniques can therefore represent the makers’ present-day surroundings as well as traditional stories.
Calendar rule
When Qixi falls
The seventh day of the seventh lunar month, the double-seventh.
The exact rule is 7th day of the 7th lunar month. Its Gregorian date moves because lunar months last 29 or 30 days, while leap months keep the lunar year aligned with the seasons.
Qixi dates, 2023–2032
| Year | Gregorian date | Calendar position |
|---|---|---|
| 2023 | 22 August 2023 | Lunar 7/7 |
| 2024 | 10 August 2024 | Lunar 7/7 |
| 2025 | 29 August 2025 | Lunar 7/7 |
| 2026 | 19 August 2026 | Lunar 7/7 |
| 2027 | 8 August 2027 | Lunar 7/7 |
| 2028 | 26 August 2028 | Lunar 7/7 |
| 2029 | 16 August 2029 | Lunar 7/7 |
| 2030 | 5 August 2030 | Lunar 7/7 |
| 2031 | 24 August 2031 | Lunar 7/7 |
| 2032 | 12 August 2032 | Lunar 7/7 |
Observance
How it is observed
Across documented Chinese traditions, women and girls have set out seasonal fruit and held needlework or other skill contests, though forms differ sharply by region and many have faded.
Common questions
Understanding Qixi
Is Qixi only a festival for couples?
No. Romance is a prominent association, but older practices also centre on women’s craftsmanship, ingenuity and hopes for the future.
What are qiaoguo?
They are festival pastries, not simply fresh fruit. Zhejiang examples use small flour shapes fried in oil, with designs and recipes varying locally.
What happened to handmade Qixi objects afterward?
A historical account of Guangzhou customs describes girls exchanging small crafts and toys as tokens of friendship after the festival.
The calendar around the next occurrence
Qixi in 2027
Sunday, 8 August 2027 is lunar month 7, day 7, in lunar year 2027. The festival falls in the Yin Fire Goat year.
The festival’s lunar year
Yin Fire Goat
354 days across 12 lunar months, with no leap month.
Explore this lunar year →Inside lunar month 7
30 days in this month
From 2 August 2027 to 31 August 2027. The festival is on day 7.
Beginning of Autumn
The solar term begins on 8 August 2027.
Convert the festival date →
Moon around the celebration
Waxing crescent
This is the Moon phase on the festival’s civil date.
Moon phases for the festival month →Before and after this festival
9 June 2027
Dragon Boat FestivalLunar date & day reading →8 August 2027
QixiLunar date & day reading →16 August 2027
Ghost FestivalLunar date & day reading →
The next celebration · 8 August 2027 · UTC+8
The complete Qixi day reading
The festival sets the occasion; its day pillar, activities, directions and hours change each year. This reading is for 8 August 2027.
Daily almanac · 2027-08-08
Qixi: activities & day animal
己未 Yin Earth Goat
The stem gives Earth; the branch gives Goat.
Read this stem against your Day Master →Huang Dao and Hei Dao name the day-god cycle. For a particular plan, read its Yi and Ji activities below.
宜 Traditionally suitable
- Ritual offerings祭祀
- Begin construction earthworks动土
- Build an embankment筑堤
- Dig a pond开池
- Meet relatives and friends会亲友
- Seal openings塞穴
- Place the deceased in a coffin入殓
- Move a coffin移柩
- Begin burial excavation破土
- Burial安葬
忌 Traditionally avoid
Calendar terms explained
This day in the traditional cycles
Each result below names this date’s position and explains what the term means.
- Day pillar 日柱
- Yin Earth Goat · 己未— this date’s position in the repeating 60-day stem–branch cycle.Hidden stems are stems conventionally contained in the day pillar’s earthly branch. Primary is the main layer; middle and residual are secondary layers.
- Yin Earth · Jǐ 己 (primary)
- Yin Fire · Dīng 丁 (middle)
- Yin Wood · Yǐ 乙 (residual)
- Month pillar 月柱
- Yang Earth Monkey · 戊申— the month’s position in the 60-part stem–branch cycle.
- Year pillar 年柱
- Yin Fire Goat · 丁未— Fire generates Earth; the year’s position in the 60-year cycle.
- Day Na Yin 纳音
- Heavenly Fire · 天上火— a fixed named element assigned to this pillar; its element is Fire.
- Day animal 生肖
- Goat · 羊— the animal of the earthly branch in this date’s pillar.
- Opposes 冲
- Yin Water Ox · 癸丑— a Six Clash (六冲), the branch directly opposite this date’s branch in the 12-branch cycle.
- Lunar mansion 宿
- Hairy Head · 昴— this date’s position in the repeating 28-mansion cycle.West palace (西) · Rooster creature (鸡) · traditionally unfavourable (凶)
- Day officer 建除
- Close · 闭— determined by this date’s earthly branch relative to its solar-term month branch.
- Auspicious directions 吉方
- Joy 喜神: Northeast (东北)
- Blessing 福神: North (正北)
- Wealth 财神: North (正北)
- Peng Zu lines 彭祖百忌
- The verse cautions against handling agreements, saying both parties may lose.己不破券二比并亡The verse cautions against taking medicine, saying harm may enter the body.未不服药毒气入肠Two traditional almanac caution lines selected by this date’s stem and branch.
All hours and their hour gods · UTC+8
Auspicious hours for Qixi
Read every interval and its traditional classification. A favorable hour is separate from suitability for a particular activity.
Heavenly Punishment
InauspiciousVermilion Bird
InauspiciousGolden Coffer
AuspiciousHeavenly Virtue
AuspiciousWhite Tiger
InauspiciousJade Hall
AuspiciousHeavenly Prison
InauspiciousDark Warrior
InauspiciousController of Destiny
AuspiciousGou Chen
InauspiciousAzure Dragon
AuspiciousBright Hall
AuspiciousAzure Dragon
Auspicious
The Rat double-hour crosses midnight. Its 00:00–00:59 and 23:00–23:59 portions belong to different hourly cycles, so both are listed separately. How the hourly cycle works →
The Moon this month · UTC+8
August 2027 moon phases
New moon
Lunar 7/1
First quarter
Lunar 7/8
Full moon
Lunar 7/16
Last quarter
Lunar 7/24
Calculated phase moments use fixed UTC+8. A lunar day number and a Moon phase describe different things. How they fit together →
Plan around Qixi
See the festival in its month or compare the surrounding days with your own birth-year animal.