"PROPITIOUS DAY."

Ashburton Guardian, Volume XXXIX, Issue 9597, 29 April 1919, Page 3

"PROPITIOUS DAY."

A solution to the problem of unhappy marriages is suggested by the celebration in China recently of the annual festival of "Propitious Day." The festival is the outcome of a very ancient Buddhist legend.

The story runs that a young, man and a young woman one day happened, entirely apart from each other/to offer prayers to Buddha: he for a model wife and she for a model husband. Buddha decided to unite the two as husband and wife.

For a time they lived happily together, but then began following their own wills, and so got wrangling and qua/rolling. This outcome of his matchmaking angered Buddha, and he banished the two to opposite sides of a broad and deep river, so that while they could see each other they could not reach other, or even converse.

Once a year, however, they were permitted to meet. The result was chat they longed for each other and looked forward eagerly to the coming of the reunion day, and thus became a model husband and wife.

The supposed anniversary of this reunion day is the "Propitious Day," which women celebrate. On that day Chinese maidens implore Heaven to send them worthy husbands and they offer to Buddha miniature dolls, or figures made of a special kind of paper. These little figures represent the two married people of the old legend.