Chinanews, Beijing, Aug. 15 – Some experts from Chinese Folk Art and Literature Society recently proposed that to make Qixi, or Double Seventh Night, or the Seventh Night of the Seventh Month Festival, be designated as the “Chinese St. Valentine's Day”.Chinese people started to celebrate the Qixi Festival way back in the Han Dynasty (206 B.C. -220 A.D.). The Cowherd Niulang and the Weaving maid Zhinv fell in love with each other, but their love was prohibited by the heavenly Emperor, who forced them to be separated by a river. Every year on the seventh night of the seventh month, the two lovers were allowed to walk across the bridge spanned by magpies for reunion over the Heavenly River (the Milky Way).The festival has been listed as China’s intangible heritage, and in Guangdong, Hainan and Hunan provinces, people still celebrate the festival. Experts reveal that in the Tang Dynasty (618-907), there were various kinds of activities to celebrate this festival. Royal family members would hold banquets in Qixi, and young people would burn incense in gardens in worship of the two lovers, hoping to find true love.But modern young people in China today enjoy St. Valentine's Day more than Qixi, so experts think new styles of celebrating Qixi should be developed. Aug. 7, 2008 is Qixi, just a day before the opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympics. So some experts hope Qixi celebrations can also be included in the opening ceremony.