What were the gifts for the Chinese Valentine's Day in ancient times?

What were given as gifts on Chinese Valentine’s Day in ancient times? The Chinese Valentine's Day originated in the Han Dynasty and is the most romantic of China's traditional festivals. Next, let’s take a look at how ancient people expressed their love on the Chinese Valentine’s Day for thousands of years.

What were gifts given on the Chinese Valentine's Day in ancient times?

Powder box

A powder box is a makeup box used by ancient women to store their cosmetics. It is an indispensable daily item in a woman's boudoir. In addition to its function of dressing up, powder boxes also served as tokens of love between talented men and beautiful women in ancient times, witnesses of marriage, and pleasing works of art.

Heart Knot

The Love Knot is a knot in the shape of a chain of palindromes woven with brocade ribbons, used to symbolize faithful love. It is said in "The Origin of Poetry": Wen Zhou fell in love with his neighbor Jiang, and gave Jiang a crystal needle that had been refined a hundred times as a token of love. Jiang opened her shoe box, took out the twine, threaded two needles, and weaved a heart-shaped knot to give back to Wen Zhou.

Agarwood

Agarwood can not only be made into delicate carvings that can be played with in the hands, but can also be hung on the body to spread the fragrance. In addition, the ancients would use beautiful agarwood carvings as tokens of love between spouses or lovers.

Round fan

The round fan, because it is as pure as the bright moon and implies reunion and gathering, is easily discovered and chosen by women with their delicate, gentle and romantic personality, who regard it as a symbol of pure love. Legend has it that Fan Li, a doctor from the State of Yue, went to Zhuluo Mountain south of Zhuji City to look for talented people, but he fell in love with Xi Shi at first sight when she was washing silk barefoot, and they made a vow to stay together forever. The clever and skillful Xi Shi made a fan out of wheat straw, embroidered her own face on the fan core with colorful silk, and gave it to Fan Lang.

Purse

A purse is a small bag for carrying scattered items that we carry with us in traditional Chinese Han clothing. Purses embroidered with mandarin ducks are often used as tokens of love. A wife gives them to her husband to wear to show their love for each other and their commitment to never being separated.

Jade Comb

In ancient my country, giving a comb as a gift meant a secret engagement and the desire to grow old together. In ancient times, it was customary for women’s families to comb their hair before they got married. The saying “one comb to the end, two combs to the black hair to the eyebrows, and three combs to have a large family” not only contained the family’s good wishes, but also the transmission of love.