The traditional festival customs of the Double Ninth Festival include worshiping ancestors, climbing mountains, and eating Double Ninth Cake.
1. Ancestor worship:
Double Ninth Festival, New Year’s Eve, Spring Festival, Qingming Festival, Dragon Boat Festival, July Half, etc. are all traditional Chinese ancestor worship festivals. Ancestor worship is the main festival. a major theme. Ancient China was a farming society and agricultural civilization was a form of civilization that attached great importance to the experience of its ancestors. Since ancient times, the Chinese nation has had the concept of etiquette and customs of respecting ancestors and being cautious about pursuing the future. It has the custom of offering sacrifices to ancestors during festivals to show filial piety and not forgetting the roots.
2. Climbing:
In ancient times, people had the custom of climbing during the Double Ninth Festival, so the Double Ninth Festival is also called the "Climbing Festival". The custom of climbing during the Double Ninth Festival stems from the climate characteristics at this time and the ancients' worship of mountains. The custom of "climbing high" on the Double Ninth Festival is also intrinsically linked to the Taoist "ascension to heaven and immortality" on September 9th. In Taoist culture, the Double Ninth Festival on September 9th is the best time to "ascend to heaven and become an immortal", so in Taoist legends Choose September 9th to "ascend to heaven and become an immortal". Taoists believe that the clear air rises on this day. The higher the terrain, the more clear air gathers, and the clear air can rise to the sky.
3. Eating Double Ninth Cake:
The origin of eating Double Ninth Cake on the Double Ninth Festival comes from the custom of climbing on the Double Ninth Festival. It is also called flower cake and is made of glutinous rice flour and japonica rice flour. A kind of delicacy, it is also the best gift for the elders. Since "cake" and "gao" have the same pronunciation, people eat cakes instead of climbing high, which also has the meaning of "rising higher and higher step by step".
Introduction to the Double Ninth Festival:
The Double Ninth Festival is a traditional Chinese folk festival that falls on the ninth day of the ninth lunar month every year. The number "Nine" is a yang number in the "Book of Changes". The two yang numbers "Nine and Nine" overlap each other, so it is called "Double Ninth Festival"; because the sun and moon both coincide with nine, it is also called "Double Nine". Jiujiu returns to his true nature and the One Yuan begins. The ancients believed that the Double Ninth Festival is an auspicious day. In ancient times, people had customs such as climbing high to pray for blessings, worshiping gods and ancestors, and drinking banquets to pray for longevity during the Double Ninth Festival. It has been passed down to this day, and connotations such as respecting the elderly have been added. Climbing high to appreciate autumn and being grateful and respectful to the elderly are two important themes of today’s Double Ninth Festival activities.
The Double Ninth Festival originated from the worship of celestial phenomena. It started in ancient times, became popular in the Western Han Dynasty, and flourished after the Tang Dynasty. According to existing historical data and textual research, in ancient times, there were activities to hold harvest festivals to worship heaven and ancestors in the autumn season; the ancients held sacrifices to the emperor of heaven and ancestors in September when crops were harvested, to thank the emperor of heaven and ancestors for their kindness. This is the Double Ninth Festival as an autumn festival. The original form existed for the harvest ritual activities. The Tang Dynasty was an important period when traditional festival customs were integrated and finalized, and the main part of them has been passed down to this day.