Yoga with Ki-Yuan
Locust Pose and Quxi Festival
Locust Pose is one of the best preparatory poses for stronger backbends. It also stretches and strengthens the back muscles while simultaneously bringing stability to the spine.
Instead of the full locust pose which maybe a bit challenging, let us try the one-legged version. It is easier and still able to strengthen the lower back muscles and glutes, plus improve blood supply to the lower back and neck muscles, relieving stiffness in this region.
Qixi Festival. The Chinese Valentine Festival, on the 7th day of the 7th month of the lunar calendar, is a celebration of love. The festival is about two lovers, the weaver girl from heaven, and the cowherder from earth.
The naughty weaver girl sneaked down to earth, met the cowherder, got married, and started a family. That didn’t please the heavenly mother. With one stroke of her finger, probably the middle one, she drew a Milky Way across the sky to prevent the lovers to ever meet again.
Meanwhile, the love between the lovers moved the magpies. They built a bridge of magpies over the Milky Way, allowing them to meet. They are allowed to meet once a year on Qixi. That was the origin of the Magpie Bridge and the Qixi Festival.
The icon for my Unsplash account is also a Qixi picture.
