🏮Tonight, we step quietly back more than 2,100 years, into the Western Han dynasty, when Chang'an was the capital of the Han empire.

It is the seventh evening of the seventh month of the lunar calendar — the night that would become widely known as Qixi Festival or sometimes called Chinese Valentine’s Day today. The night has begun to settle softly over the palace grounds. A young palace attendant makes her way towards Kaijin Tower, a small bundle of colored thread held close against her.

For the first time since entering the palace, she joins the seventh-night seven month needle practice with the women of the palace weaving room, where fine needles, woven mats, and a low bronze oil lamp wait in Kaijin Tower Upper room. Above the sleeping roofs, the Weaver Star and the Milky Way, known as the River of Heaven, remain visible while one  ...