In short, this feast is liked chiefly as a pleasant holiday, and as affording a theme for the poets.
In the seventh moon the great heats have passed away, and advantage is taken of the soft zephyr and the purity of the sky, which is generally to be noticed at this season of the year, to sit out on the balcony of the house, and to enjoy the cool air whilst drinking rice-wine. The hypothesis of these two invisible beings inhabiting the two stars is rather a pretext than a belief, I am inclined to think. Long separations, always so sad, and the meeting again, which is all the more delightful because it is so unfrequent, are symbolised in this legend. The two stars meeting across the Milky Way in a clear sky, under the burning and envious gaze of the other stars, and the light of the crescent-moon, form a graceful picture, which, by a pretty celestial dream, charms our spirit, greedy as it always is of the ideal, and glad to escape for a while from the truer but often more disappointing images of worldly realities.
CHAPTER VI
THE FEAST OF FLOWERS
This feast falls on the fifteenth day of the second moon, but is, in practice, prolonged until the end of spring. It is also called “the feast of mild warmth.” This is the best season of the year, the mildest and the most charming. The trees, almost all in bloom at that time, alternating with the weeping willows, drooping down their long branches laden with green leaves, form, together with the picturesque pavilions, perspectives which over and over again have inspired the poet’s song. There is not a private garden in the land which is not then transformed into a horticultural exhibition. Poles of different colours are set up, ornamented with flags and laden with little bells, and in the middle all sorts of games are played, amongst others the game of butterflies. This game is unknown in Europe, and, therefore, merits a description here. Butterflies are caught, and a hair is attached to them; this hair is weighted with a scrap of paper, to prevent them from flying away out of reach, and then they are pursued by the women armed with their fans.
Other families go out into the country to pick flowers, to run in the fields, and to play the game we call the “lawn game.” We have had emperors who were poets, and who, on that day, used to distribute verses composed by them on different kinds of plants. It was on this occasion that the Minister of Agriculture used to present to the Sovereign seeds of every plant under cultivation in his empire. In private houses, this is the day chosen for making rice-wine. The people of Su-Tcheang march out on this day in solemn procession, to the sound of music, to the rice-fields, amidst crowds of spectators. This fête used to be very brilliant under the dynasty of the Thangs, emperors who delighted in simple pleasures in the midst of flowers. One of them used to give his favourites pieces of silk, having the colours of the spring flowers, on this feast. The silks were afterwards made into light spring dresses.