In August, there’s a formula for finding the most romantic night of the season, and here’s how it goes: Once the Moon comes New, count seven nights while watching for the summer’s brightest star to reach the zenith. Then the conditions are right for the love story that unfolds overhead, bridging the vast expanse of the Milky Way river of stars, and gathering us all in its wake. And it happens this week.
The seventh night of the seventh moon is known as the Qixi Festival in Chinese tradition, and it comes around on Friday, August 29th. The New Moon on Saturday, August 23rd, was the seventh Moon in the Chinese festival calendar, that’s the first element of the formula. Then count seven night, which will be Friday this week, that’s the second element of the formula. Then Vega, the brightest star of the Summer touches the zenith, and the circumstances are set, the elements are complete, and romance can prevail.
All week, the Moon will be a beautiful waxing crescent, and on Friday, while still at crescent phase, it will approach the region of Scorpio, just west of the Milky Way and not yet bright enough to diminish the light of the stars. The Moon will set less than two hours after sunset, after astronomical twilight has ended and the thickest region of Milky Way stars appears ~ if you are lucky enough to be under dark skies ~ and even if not, there’s no problem planning for a romantic evening anyway!
While the Moon is making this approach to the Milky Way, the three brightest stars overhead are tell the story of the Weaving Princess and the Cowherd. These stars make up the asterism known as the Summer Triangle, and the brightest among them, Vega, is highest up, representing the weaving princess in the story, whose beloved, the star Altair, is relegated to a position across the Milky Way and south of Vega. These lovers can only come together once each year, on the seventh night of the seventh Moon, when they meet highest in the sky, and await the miracle of magpies that descend on the river, spreading out their wings to create a bridge for the lovers to cross. The third star in the Summer Triangle is Deneb, the tail of the swan that we imagine as the magpies, wings outstretched, flying along the Milky Way.
Every other night of the year and all summer long, the lovers are on opposite sides of the river with no way to cross, but when the seventh moon comes to its seventh night, the story is activated, and the lovers can meet!
Here’s WS Merwin’s Traveling Together, which fits this situation beautifully:
If we are separated I will
try to wait for you
on your side of things
your side of the wall and the water
and of the light moving at its own speed
even on leaves that we have seen
I will wait on one side
while a side is there
~MilkyWayMary
Hear this episode of The Storyteller’s Night Sky on podcast here, and wherever you listen. Share the star shine, spread the word!