The Qixi Festival, which falls on the seventh day of the seventh lunar month every year, typically calls to mind the legend of the cowherd and weaver girl meeting on a bridge of magpies. It is also the day when women traditionally prayed to the weaver girl (the seventh daughter of the Heavenly Jade Emperor) for a quick mind and deft fingers. That is why this festival is also known as qiqiaojie (the festival of praying for nimbleness). From the 1930s to the 1970s, the Qixi Festival was widely celebrated by Singapore’s Cantonese community, with other dialect groups also joining in the festivities. The local Cantonese community also called this festival qijiedan (Seven Sisters Festival), and the celebrations were known as yinhehui (Milky Way celebrations) or qijiehui (Seven Sisters celebrations).

Milky Way celebrations

During the Song dynasty, the Qixi Festival celebrations at Bianliang (present-day Kaifeng in Henan) lasted for a week.1 In the Guangdong region, the festival was widely celebrated from the Song dynasty to the Qing dynasty.2In the early years of the Republican era in China, single women in Guangdong towns and villages would display their handicrafts during the festival and perform rituals such as collecting water at dawn and threading needles by moonlight.3 When Cantonese women migrated to Nanyang (Southeast Asia), they brought this custom with them. Celebrations for the Qixi Festival were comparable to those for Chinese New Year in early-day Chinatown when it was an enclave for Cantonese migrants.

A Nam Mo Lo priest chanting during the Qixi Festival celebrations, 1950s. Courtesy of Chan Yew Kay.

To give a sense of the scale of celebrations and prevalence of participation, there were more than 10,000 people in Chinatown who were part of Milky Way Associations (editor’s note: groups of people who came together to organise Qixi celebrations) during the 1950s.4They included:

  • Factory girls: Most of the female factory workers in Chinatown were young women who worked in rubber factories. Their celebrations were typically held in the five-foot ways of the association leader’s house, supported by housewives who helped to organise the celebrations.
  • Samsui women: Most of the Samsui women who lived around what is now Upper Chin Chew Street made a meagre living from construction work, sending much of their savings back to their hometown. Their celebrations were hence usually smaller.
  • Majie: The Qixi Festival was an annual celebration for local majie, or Cantonese female domestic servants. The weaver girl’s spirit of freedom – in her quest to marry whom she pleases – may have resonated deeply with the independent and self-sufficient majie.
  • Clan associations: Members of clan associations, including majie, participated in the celebrations. Majie who had a good relationship with their employers would also attend the celebrations with their employers’ families.
  • Women of red-light districts: Women who worked in the red-light district (including pipazai or young girls who performed music at clubs and brothels) of Keong Saik Road usually had more money to spend and their celebrations tended to be grander. They typically left the planning of the celebrations to the majie. Tents for the celebration were set up from Tong Ah Eating House at one end of the street to Cundhi Gong temple at the other end. The decorative handicrafts were also made by the majie.
  • Shipyard workers: The workers of Keppel Shipyard held their celebrations at the “north-west gate” (now the Telok Blangah area), usually in conjunction with the Hungry Ghost Festival. Held at the site of the present-day Seah Im car park, it was even grander than the celebrations in Keong Saik Road, with several Chinese opera performances taking place both day and night.5
Upper Chin Chew Street, 1954. On the right, facing the camera, is a Samsui woman. Arthur B Reich Collection, courtesy of National Archives of Singapore. 

How majie celebrate Qixi Festival

The majie are keen celebrants of the Qixi Festival and would personally make items as offerings. Items such as the Seven Sisters basin, clothes and water are essential parts of the celebrations. Other common offerings include flowers, fruit, pressed powders, Florida Water perfume, lipsticks, needles and thread, combs, gift baskets, longevity buns and more. Some majie would also buy gold jewellery to place on the offering tables and give them as gifts to their adopted daughters or other majie after the ceremony.

Chee De Run standing in front of Gwan Coeng grocery shop on Neil Road, holding the Seven Sisters basin and clothes he made, 1954. Courtesy of Chee Yoke Weng.
The Seven Sisters cake is also known as the money cake. Devotees present these pastries as offerings to the Seventh Sister, the Goddess of Mercy and other deities, 2020. Courtesy of Lee Kok Leong.

The Milky Way Association at 51A Kreta Ayer Road is one of the earliest of its kind in Singapore. In the early 1970s, the Shun Tak Kong Mei Sar Khai Wong Clan Association moved out of the premises and a group of majie moved in. From then on, between the sixth and the eighth day of the seventh lunar month, members of the public were welcomed to observe their Qixi Festival celebrations. Life-size statues of the Seven Sisters, adorned with phoenix headpieces and colourful dresses embroidered with pearls and sequins, are placed around the hall. Embroidered purses, folding screens, origami items, flower baskets and clay figurines of folk tales and other exquisitely crafted objects are also displayed.

Separately, at the Singapore Sar Pho Clansmen Association’s celebrations on 25 Kreta Ayer Road, the highlight was a tower stack of offerings: the structure is first made from paper rolls, with grains of glutinous rice, red beans, green beans and sesame seeds stuck on individually. Rice seedlings, wheat straw and Seven Sisters pastries are also displayed for good luck.

Giving new life to tradition

Today, as Singapore redevelops, celebrations of the Qixi Festival have become less common. In China, the Cultural Revolution (1966–1976) also put a stop to the customs for some time. But women like the majie brought the traditions back to their hometown when they returned to China from Singapore. As a result, the Qixi Festival celebrations in mainland China today are imbued with Singaporean flavour. In Singapore, there are increasing efforts to revive this festival. In addition to seminars, workshops and performances in recent years, a Qixi Fest was also held in Chinatown from 2023, injecting new life into old traditions through a variety of events.