Double Ninth Festival

The origin of Chongyang can be traced back to before the pre-Qin period. "Lu Chunqiu Qiu Ji Ji" says: "In September, the family was ordered to slaughter, and the fields were prepared for harvest, and five important things were listed. The Tibetan emperor's book is collected in the holy warehouse, and I only respect it. " "It's the day, Great Emperor. I'll taste the sacrifice and tell the son of heaven." It can be seen that at that time, when the crops were harvested in autumn and September, there were activities of offering sacrifices to the emperor and ancestors to thank them for their kindness.

Jia, the imperial secretary in Xijing Miscellanies of the Han Dynasty, said: "On September 9, Pei Yun ate the bait and drank chrysanthemum wine, and the clouds made people live longer." According to legend, since then, there has been the custom of seeking longevity on the Double Ninth Festival. This is influenced by the ancient wizards (later Taoist priests) who pursued immortality and collected drugs to take. At the same time, there are also large-scale banquet activities, which developed from the Qingfeng banquet in the pre-Qin period. The Chronicle of Jingchu Age said: "On September 9th, four people got together for a picnic." Duke Du of Sui wrote: "I don't know when the banquet on September 9 started, and it hasn't changed since I was stationed in the Song Dynasty." Longevity and feast form the basis of the Double Ninth Festival.

Secondly,

One of the prototypes of the Double Ninth Festival is the ancient fire sacrifice ceremony.

As a symbol of the ancient seasonal star, the "Fire" star retired in September, and it was called "Fire in September" in summer. The retreat of the star "fire" not only made the ancients who had always regarded Mars as a symbol of seasonal production and life lose the coordinates of time, but also made the ancients who worshipped fire feel inexplicable fear. The dormancy of Vulcan means the arrival of a long winter. Therefore, although the situation of ancient sacrificial ceremonies in Inner Fire is obscure, we can still find some traces of ancient customs from the utensils of the Double Ninth Festival in later generations. For example, in some places in the south of the Yangtze River, there is a custom of offering sacrifices to stoves on Chongyang, which is the fire god at home, thus showing the clues of offering sacrifices to "fire" in ancient September. The ancients regarded Chongyang, Shangsi or cold food, September 9 and March 3 as the corresponding spring and autumn festivals. Liu Hanxin's Miscellaneous Notes on Xijing said: "Go to the third grade in March, play games with girls in September, and then climb the mountain." The correspondence among thinking, cold food and Chongyang is based on the appearance of "fire".

With the progress of people's livelihood science and technology, people have a new understanding of time, and the "fire calendar" has given way to the general calendar. The ritual of sacrificing fire in September declined, but people still have special feelings about the natural climate change caused by the decline of yang in September, so the ancient custom of climbing mountains and avoiding it still spread to cities, although the world has a new explanation.

Chongyang has become a landmark building in people's life after the return of Xia Dong. If thinking and cold food are the Spring Festival when people go out to swim after a long winter, then Chongyang is a ceremonial autumn outing when autumn cold comes and people are about to live in seclusion, so there is thinking "outing" and Chongyang's "farewell". The custom of Double Ninth Festival revolves around people's feelings in this season.

Ethnicity

The Double Ninth Festival has a history of more than two thousand years. The origin of the Double Ninth Festival can be traced back to the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period. During the Warring States period, Chongyang was paid attention to by people, but it was only an activity in the palace.

In the Han Dynasty, the custom of celebrating the Double Ninth Festival gradually became popular. According to legend, Lady Qi, the concubine of Emperor Gaozu Liu Bang, was murdered, and Jia Shi, the maid before her, was expelled from the palace and married the poor. Jia brought the activities of Chongyang to the people. Jia told people: in the palace, on the ninth day of September every year, we should wear dogwood, eat tent bait and drink chrysanthemum wine in order to live longer. Since then, the custom of Chongyang has spread among the people.

The name of "Double Ninth Festival" was recorded in the Three Kingdoms period. According to Cao Pi's "Nine Days and Zhong You Book", it says: "From year to month, September 9 suddenly comes again. Nine is the number of yang, and the sun and the moon coincide. It is well known and considered suitable for a long time, so it is a feast. "

Tao Yuanming, a scholar in Jin Dynasty, said in the preface to the poem "Idle for Nine Days": "I am idle and love the name of Nine. Autumn chrysanthemums are full of gardens, but they are sad, empty for Jiuhua, and precious words are like gold. " Chrysanthemum and wine are mentioned here at the same time. During the Wei and Jin Dynasties, there was a custom of enjoying chrysanthemums and drinking alcohol.

In the Tang Dynasty, the Double Ninth Festival was designated as an official festival. From then on, the court and the people celebrated the Double Ninth Festival together, and various activities were carried out during the festival.

In the Song Dynasty, the Double Ninth Festival was more lively. Dream of China in Tokyo recorded the grand occasion of the Double Ninth Festival in the Northern Song Dynasty. Legend of Wulin also records that the court in the Southern Song Dynasty "rearranged nine soldiers on the eighth day of the eighth lunar month" for the next day's entertainment.

In the Ming dynasty, the eunuchs and concubines in the palace began to eat flower cakes together to celebrate from the first day of junior high school. On the ninth Double Ninth Festival, the emperor will personally climb the Long Live Mountain to watch the victory, so as to celebrate his autumn ambition.

In the Qing Dynasty, the customs of the Ming Dynasty still prevailed.

Since the 1980s, some places in China have designated September 9th in the summer calendar as the festival for the elderly, advocating the whole society to establish the atmosphere of respecting, loving and helping the elderly. 1989, the China municipal government designated the ninth day of the ninth lunar month as "Day for the Elderly" and "Day for Respecting the Elderly".

201212 on February 28th, the National People's Congress Standing Committee (NPCSC), China voted to pass the newly revised Law on the Protection of the Rights and Interests of the Elderly. The law clearly stipulates that the ninth day of the ninth lunar month is the festival for the elderly every year.