Today's Double Ninth Festival has been given a new meaning. 1989, China designated September 9th as the festival for the elderly, skillfully combining tradition with modernity, and becoming a festival to respect, care for and help the elderly.
The Double Ninth Festival was mentioned in Chu Ci during the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period. Qu Yuan's Journey wrote: "Set Chongyang into the Emperor's Palace and see the capital of Qing Dynasty ten days later." The "Double Ninth Festival" here refers to the sky, not just festivals. In Nine Days Zhong You written by Cao Pi, Wei Wendi in the Three Kingdoms period, it was clearly written that the Double Ninth Festival: "From the year to the month, I suddenly returned to September 9. 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. Probably in the Wei and Jin Dynasties, there was a custom of drinking and enjoying chrysanthemums on the Double Ninth Festival. In the Tang Dynasty, Chongyang was officially designated as a folk festival.
In the Ming Dynasty, on the Double Ninth Festival in September, the palace would eat flower cakes together to celebrate, and the emperor would personally climb the Long Live Mountain to celebrate his autumn ambition. This custom has been passed down to the Qing Dynasty.
The custom of Double Ninth Festival in various places
The activities to celebrate the Double Ninth Festival are colorful and romantic, generally including going out to enjoy autumn, climbing high and overlooking, watching chrysanthemums, planting dogwood everywhere, eating double ninth festival cakes, drinking chrysanthemum wine and other activities. Besides these customs, there are many interesting customs all over China.
1. On the Double Ninth Festival in northern Shaanxi, people harvest and thresh during the day and go to the treetops at night. People like to eat buckwheat noodles and boiled mutton. After dinner, people go out in groups, climb the nearby hills, light the lights and talk about everything until the chickens crow. When climbing mountains at night, people will pick some wild chrysanthemums and wear them on their daughters' heads to ward off evil spirits.
In northern Shandong, people eat spicy radish soup on the Double Ninth Festival. There is a proverb: "After drinking radish soup, the whole family is not bitter."
In Zhejiang, Shaoxing people visit each other on the Double Ninth Festival. Tonglu people prepare pigs and sheep to worship their ancestors, which is called autumn sacrifice. At the same time, they also wrap zongzi on the Double Ninth Festival and give them to each other. This is the so-called Double Ninth Zongzi.
In Jiangsu, Nanjing people cut it into an oblique shape with five-color paper, and even decorated it as a flag and inserted it in the court. People in Changzhou eat a kind of pasta called "camel hoof" on the Double Ninth Festival. People in Wuxi eat Chongyang cake and Jiupin soup on the Double Ninth Festival.
In Xianghe, Hebei Province, families with in-laws will give gifts to each other on the Double Ninth Festival, which is called "Chasing the Festival". In some places, children play paper kites on the Double Ninth Festival. There are no mountains in some places, and there are many people climbing the tower on the Double Ninth Festival.