The Qixi Festival, more colloquially known as the Chinese Valentines’ Day, had been covered several times by Google Doodles in the past. But on August 13, 2013, Google brought the legend to life with an interactive game that helped explain its origins to those not familiar with the holiday.
The story goes like this: two lovers live across a river from each other and can only meet on a certain night, but they are able to traverse the river thanks to a bridge created by magpies. Google paid homage to the lovers’ story with a game where Google users have to place the correct-colored bird in its place to create a bridge so the couple can meet. In Google’s version, however, two sneaky birds drag the man and woman away from each other before they can meet, prompting another more difficult level. The Doodle offered an interactive way for people to learn about how another culture celebrates love, and showed off some lovely graphics created by Google’s team. Can you beat all three levels? Let’s hope for the sake of those celebrating the Qixi Festival.
