The Double Ninth Festival is also called the Climbing Festival. On this day, people climb high and look far away, missing their loved ones. As the poem says: "Every festive season, we miss our loved ones even more." So how did the Double Ninth Festival come about?
It turns out that in ancient my country, nine was called the "Yang number". On September 9th of the lunar calendar, the two nines coincided with each other, both of which were Yang numbers, so it was called "Double Ninth Festival". The Double Ninth Festival comes from a Taoist fairy tale:
During the Eastern Han Dynasty, there was a rural young man named Huan Jing in Runan County. He had two parents, a wife and children. Although life is not good, I can still get by with half food and half food. Who knew something unfortunate would happen. A plague broke out on both sides of the Ru River. Every household fell ill, and corpses were everywhere. No one buried them. This year, Huan Jing's parents also died of illness.
When Huan Jing was a child, he heard adults say: "There is a plague demon living in the Ru River. Every year it comes out and walks around the world. Wherever it goes, it brings the plague. Huan Jing is determined to visit his teacher and ask for help. He learned skills to fight plague demons and eliminate harm for the people. He heard that there was a great immortal named Fei Changfang living in the southeast mountains, so he packed his bags and set off to study under Fei Changfang.
Huan Jing was given a sword to subdue demons. Huan Jing got up early and went to bed late, practicing day and night under the stars. In a blink of an eye, it was another year. When Huan Jing was practicing swordsmanship, Fei Changfang came up and said, "This is the ninth year of the year." On the ninth day of the lunar month, the Ruhe plague demon will come out again. You quickly return to your hometown to eliminate harm to the people. I will give you a pack of dogwood leaves and a bottle of chrysanthemum wine, so that the elders in your hometown can climb high to avoid disaster. "After the immortal said this, he pointed with his hand, and a crane flew over with spread wings and landed in front of Huan Jing. Huan Jing climbed on the crane and flew towards Runan.
Huan Jing returned to his hometown and summoned his fellow villagers. . On September 9th, he led his wife, children, and villagers to a nearby mountain and gave each of them a piece of dogwood leaf, saying that the plague demon would not dare to carry it with him. Then he poured out the chrysanthemum wine and everyone took a sip. He said that after drinking the chrysanthemum wine, he would not be infected with the plague. He arranged for the villagers to go back to his house and sat alone. Inside the house, I waited for the plague demon to come and fight against it.
After a while, I heard the roar of the Ru River and the strange wind swirling. The plague demon came out of the water and walked ashore, passing through thousands of houses. Not seeing anyone, he suddenly looked up and saw people gathering on the high mountain. It rushed down the mountain, feeling the smell of wine and the dogwood filling its lungs. It didn't dare to go up to the mountain, so it turned back and walked towards the village. Sitting in the room, Huan Jing roared and rushed forward. He quickly fought with his sword for several rounds, but Huan Jing couldn't fight him and ran away with a "swish". Throwing the Demon-Subduing Azure Dragon Sword, the sword flashed with cold light and chased after the plague demon, piercing the heart and lungs and stabbing the plague demon to the ground.
After that, the people on both sides of the Ru River were no longer protected. The plague demon was invading people. The story of ascending to a high place on September 9th to avoid disaster and stabbing the plague demon with Huanjing sword has been passed down from father to son and from son to grandson. From then on, people celebrated the Double Ninth Festival. There is a custom of climbing high during the Double Ninth Festival.
The Double Ninth Festival is almost late autumn. The atmosphere is cool, the air is fresh, and the visibility is high. This is probably the reason why people choose to climb up and enjoy the view.
Double Ninth Festival! There are many customs on the festival, including climbing high, admiring chrysanthemums, drinking chrysanthemum wine, eating Double Ninth Cake, planting dogwood, etc. Climbing high
In ancient times, people had the custom of climbing high during the Double Ninth Festival, so the Double Ninth Festival is also known as the Double Ninth Festival. It is called "Climbing the High". According to legend, this custom began in the Eastern Han Dynasty. Literati in the Tang Dynasty wrote many climbing poems, most of which were about the customs of the Double Ninth Festival. Du Fu's Qilu "Climbing the High" is a famous poem about climbing on the Double Ninth Festival. There are no uniform regulations, but it is generally a custom to climb mountains and towers.
Eating Double Ninth Cake
According to historical records, Chongyang Cake is also known as "Double Ninth Cake". Flower cakes, chrysanthemum cakes, and five-color cakes are all made in a random way. At dawn on September 9, people put a piece of cake on their children's foreheads and uttered words to wish their children good luck. This was the original intention of the ancients in making cakes in September. The Double Ninth Festival cake should be made into nine layers, like a pagoda, with two lambs on top to match the meaning of the Double Ninth Festival (sheep). Some also put a small red paper flag on the Double Ninth Festival cake and light candles. It means "lighting up lamps" and "eating cakes" instead of "climbing high", and using small red paper flags instead of dogwood.
Today, there is still no fixed variety of Double Ninth Cake. The soft cakes eaten on the Double Ninth Festival in various places are called Double Ninth Cake.
Appreciating chrysanthemums and drinking chrysanthemum wine
Double Ninth Festival is the golden autumn season of the year, when chrysanthemums are in full bloom. It is said that appreciating chrysanthemums and drinking chrysanthemum wine originated from Tao Yuanming, a great poet of the Jin Dynasty. Tao Yuanming was famous for his seclusion, his poetry, his wine, and his love of chrysanthemums. Later generations followed suit, and the custom of appreciating chrysanthemums during the Double Ninth Festival was established. In the old days, literati and officials would combine chrysanthemum appreciation with banquets in order to get closer to Tao Yuanming. In Kaifeng, the capital of the Northern Song Dynasty, the practice of chrysanthemum viewing on the Double Ninth Festival was very popular. At that time, there were many varieties of chrysanthemums in various shapes and forms. Folks also call the ninth month of the lunar calendar the "Chrysanthemum Moon". During the Double Ninth Festival when chrysanthemums are in full bloom, viewing chrysanthemums has become an important part of the festival. After the Qing Dynasty, the custom of appreciating chrysanthemums became particularly prosperous, and it was not limited to September 9, but it was still most prosperous around the Double Ninth Festival.
Putting dogwood and hairpin chrysanthemums
The custom of planting dogwood on the Double Ninth Festival has been very common in the Tang Dynasty. The ancients believed that planting dogwood on the Double Ninth Festival can provide refuge and eliminate disasters; it can be worn on the arm, used as a sachet with the dogwood inside and worn, and some can be placed on the head. Most of them are worn by women and children. In some places, men also wear them. Wearing dogwood on the Double Ninth Festival is recorded in Ge Hong's "Xi Jing Za Ji" in the Jin Dynasty. In addition to wearing dogwood, some people also wear chrysanthemums on their heads. This was already the case in the Tang Dynasty and has been popular in all dynasties. In the Qing Dynasty, the custom of the Double Ninth Festival in Beijing was to stick chrysanthemum branches and leaves on doors and windows to "remove evil and filth and attract good luck." This is the custom of hairpin chrysanthemum on the head. In the Song Dynasty, there were people who cut colored silk ribbons into dogwoods and chrysanthemums and gave them to each other as gifts.
In addition to the above common customs in celebrating the Double Ninth Festival in various places, some places also have some unique ways of celebrating the festival. The Double Ninth Festival is the official harvest season in northern Shaanxi. There is a song that goes: "On the Double Ninth Festival in September, we are busy harvesting and harvesting. Millet and millet are coming to the field." In northern Shaanxi, the Double Ninth Festival is celebrated at night, and during the day there is a whole day of harvesting and hunting. At night, when the moon rises above the treetops, people like to enjoy buckwheat noodles and mutton. After dinner, people walk out of their homes in twos and threes, climb to the top of a nearby hill, light fires, chat, and return home only when the rooster crows. When hiking at night, many people pick a few handfuls of wild chrysanthemums and put them on their daughters' heads when they get home to ward off evil spirits.
In Puxian, Fujian, people follow the old custom of steaming nine layers of rice crackers during the Double Ninth Festival. In ancient my country, there was a custom of "eating bait" during the Double Ninth Festival. "Bait" is today's cakes, rice crackers and the like. The "Jade Candle Collection" of the Song Dynasty says: "Those who eat bait and drink chrysanthemum wine for nine days should collect millet and millet at the same time, so as to try something new because of the delicious flavor of sticky rice, so it becomes a long-standing habit." Song Zuqian, a Puxian poet in the early Qing Dynasty, said in his "Fujian Wine Song": "I was surprised to hear that the Double Ninth Festival was approaching, and I picked up wild incense with a basket in my slender hands. I pounded the jade pestle into green powder and wet it, and I called for the man to taste each pearl." In modern times, people have transformed rice crackers into a very distinctive nine-layer rice crackers. Wash the high-quality late rice with clean water, soak it for 2 hours, take it out and drain it, mix it with water and grind it into a slurry, add alum (dissolve in water) and stir, add red sugar (mix it with water and boil it into a sugar concentrate), and then put it in a steamer Place a clean cooking cloth on the pot, then scoop in the rice pulp in nine batches, steam for a while until cooked, and apply peanut oil on the surface of the rice. This rice cracker is divided into nine overlapping layers, which can be uncovered and cut into water chestnuts. The four sides are clearly layered and translucent. It is sweet, soft and tasty, and does not stick to the teeth. It is the best gift to honor the elderly during the Double Ninth Festival.
People in some places also take advantage of the opportunity of climbing mountains on the Double Ninth Festival to visit their ancestors' tombs and commemorate their ancestors. There are more people in Puxian worshiping their ancestors on the Double Ninth Festival than on the Qingming Festival. Therefore, there is a saying that the third month is the Little Qingming Festival and the Double Ninth Festival is the Great Qingming Festival. Since Puxian is located along the coast, the ninth day of September is also the anniversary of Mazu's death. Many villagers go to the Mazu Temple in Meizhou or the Tianhou Ancestral Temple and Palace Temple in Hong Kong to offer sacrifices and seek blessings.
After the founding of New China, the Double Ninth Festival was also called "Old Man's Day". In 1989, my country's Double Ninth Festival was officially named Old Man's Day. The Double Ninth Festival, which falls on the ninth day of the ninth lunar month every year, is designated as the National Respect for the Aged Day. The Chinese nation has a traditional virtue of respecting the elderly. Before and after the Double Ninth Festival, the party and the government carry out various activities to respect the elderly, such as holding symposiums, senior banquets, senior tours, physical examinations, giving gifts, helping with labor, etc., which are rich and colorful. . Most places also organize mountaineering and autumn outings for the elderly to broaden their horizons, exchange feelings, exercise, and cultivate people's noble character of returning to nature and loving the great mountains and rivers of the motherland.