1, flower cake

Respect the elderly on the Double Ninth Festival and climb high to avoid disasters. "Gao" and "Gao" are homonyms, and they also have the meanings of "rising step by step" and "longevity", so "Chongyang Flower Cake" has become a popular holiday food.

Eating flower cakes in Chongyang began in the Western Han Dynasty, when it was called "Peng Bait", that is, millet cakes. In the Song Dynasty, it was very popular to eat flower cakes on the Double Ninth Festival, which has been passed down to this day. The cause of eating flower cakes on the Double Ninth Festival is due to the climbing custom of Chongyang. Where there are mountains, we can climb mountains, but where there are no mountains, we try to find ways to make up for and replace them. Because "cake" is homophonic with "height", the custom of eating flower cakes has emerged.

Nowadays, the Chongyang Cake sold on the Double Ninth Festival will still be cut into triangles with colorful colored paper, fixed with bamboo sticks and inserted on the Chongyang Cake. Its small appearance is really cute, and it also means replacing the huge cornus.

Double ninth festival cake mostly uses rice flour and fruit as raw materials, and some double ninth festival cakes also add dates and chestnuts as fillings, which is also a characteristic of Nanjing. In Nanjing, Double ninth festival cake is also called Zaoli cake, which contains the old people's wishes for their children to "stand on their own feet early".

2. Chestnut cake

There are two kinds of snacks in Beijing that are specially eaten during the Double Ninth Festival, one is flower cake and the other is chestnut cake. Chestnut cake is made of chestnut paste as the main material.

Its method is that raw chestnuts are peeled, steamed, and mashed into mud, and large pieces of Beijing cake and sand stuffing are prepared. 200 grams of chestnut mud is divided into three parts, one part is spread out as the bottom layer, then a layer of Beijing cake slices is spread, another part is smoothed on the Beijing cake slices, and then a layer of sand stuffing is smeared, and the last part of chestnut mud is smeared on the top layer, and the pattern is made by the Beijing cake slices cut into small water chestnuts and thin green plum shreds. When eating, pour the sugar juice made of white sugar and sweet osmanthus on it.

3. Eat a rake

Eating harrows is another food custom of the Double Ninth Festival in southwest China. Harrows are divided into soft and sweet, hard and salty. Its practice is to put the washed glutinous rice into a boiling pot, bring it to a boil, steam it in a cage, mash it in a mortar and knead it into a ball. When eating, stir-fry sesame seeds, mash them into fine powder, rub the harrow into strips, pull them into small pieces, and mix them with sesame seeds and sugar. Its taste is sweet and palatable, and it is called "soft rake" (warm food is the best). Hard harrow, also known as "oil harrow", is made by steaming glutinous rice, not mashing it, rubbing it into a ball on a table, rolling it, putting some salt and pepper powder to make a "stuffing core", rolling it into strips and slicing it, and frying it in an oil pan. It is golden and beautiful in color, salty, crispy and memorable.

4. Chrysanthemum wine

Chongyang wants to drink "chrysanthemum wine" Jiujiu is homophonic with "Jiujiu" and also homophonic with "wine", so it is derived that Jiujiu should drink chrysanthemum wine. Autumn in September, autumn chrysanthemum in Ao Shuang, literati call September "Chrysanthemum Moon", common people call chrysanthemum "Nine Flowers", and Beijing regards chrysanthemum as one of the city flowers. Because of its unique character of fighting cold, chrysanthemum has become a symbol of vitality. It has an unusual cultural significance in the ancients, and it is considered as a "life-prolonging guest" and "an old grass", which can make people grow old and strong.