The Chrysanthemum Festival, which originated in the Warring States period, was originally a day of joy. The ancients categorized everything in heaven and earth into yin and yang, with yin representing darkness and yang representing light and vitality. Odd numbers are Yang and even numbers are Yin. Nine is an odd number, and therefore belongs to the yang, the first nine days of September, the sun and the moon are nine, the two yang are heavy, so it is called "Chongyang".
This time, is in the mid-autumn season, the golden autumn, Dan Gui fragrance, is a good time to climb up and look out, soothe the mind. Many Chinese literati throughout the ages, whenever this time, climbed to the high place, one side drinking chrysanthemum wine, the other side of poetry for fun, leaving countless poems.
The Chrysanthemum Festival is also the "Festival of the Elderly", and the old people enjoy the chrysanthemums on this day to cultivate their sentiments, or climb to the heights to exercise their physical fitness, which adds infinite fun to the evening scenery of Sanyu.
September, the cold winter is about to descend, people began to add winter clothes, they also do not forget to burn paper clothes in the worship of ancestors, so that the ancestors in the winter in the underworld. In this way, the Chongyang Festival has evolved into a festival of sweeping tombs and burning winter clothes for the ancestors.
Golden Autumn, the fragrance of laurel, the festival of the ninth day of the ninth month of the lunar calendar, rich in activities, fun, there are climbing, chrysanthemum, chrysanthemum wine, eat cake, dogwood, and so on.
Denggao
In ancient times, folk in the Chung Yeung has the custom of ascending the heights, so the Chung Yeung Festival is also known as the "Festival of ascending the heights". It is rumored that this custom began in the Eastern Han Dynasty. In the Tang Dynasty, there were many poems written by literati, most of which were about the customs of the Chongyang Festival; Du Fu's seven rhymes, "Ascending to the heights", is a famous piece of writing about ascending to the heights of the Chongyang Festival. There is no standardized rule on where to go, but generally it is to climb high mountains and high towers. There is also the custom of eating "Chrysanthemum Cake".
Eating Chrysanthemum cake
According to historical records, Chrysanthemum cake, also known as flower cake, chrysanthemum cake, five-color cake, the system is not fixed, more random. September 9 when the sky is bright, to piece of cake on the forehead of the children, the mouth read the words, wishing the children all things are high, is the ancient people in September for the cake's original intention. The delicate Chongyang cake to be made into nine layers, like a pagoda, the top is also made into two small sheep, in line with the meaning of Chongyang (sheep). Some also inserted a small red paper flag on the cake, and light candles. This is probably the "light", "eat cake" instead of "high" meaning, with a small red paper flag instead of cornelian cherry. Today's Chongyang cake, there is still no fixed varieties, all over the Chongyang Festival to eat the fluffy cakes are called Chongyang cake.
Appreciating chrysanthemums and drinking chrysanthemum wine
The Chrysanthemum Festival is the time of the year when chrysanthemums are in full bloom, and it is rumored that the practice of enjoying chrysanthemums and drinking chrysanthemum wine originated in the Jin Dynasty with the great poet Tao Yuanming. Tao Yuanming was famous for living in seclusion, famous for his poetry, famous for his wine, and famous for his love of chrysanthemums; later generations followed his example, and the custom of enjoying chrysanthemums at Chrysanthemum Festival came into being. In the old days, the literati and scholars also combined chrysanthemum-appreciation with banquets and drinks, in order to get closer to Tao Yuanming. In Kaifeng, the capital of Northern Song Dynasty, the chrysanthemum-appreciation style prevailed, and there were many varieties of chrysanthemums at that time, with a variety of colors. Folk also called the ninth month of the lunar calendar "the month of chrysanthemums", and in the Chrysanthemum Festival where chrysanthemums blossomed in the frost, chrysanthemum-viewing became an important part of the festival. After the Qing Dynasty, chrysanthemum appreciation is especially prosperous, and is not limited to the ninth day of the ninth month, but is still the most prosperous before and after the Chrysanthemum Festival.
Plugging Cornus and Hairpin Chrysanthemums
The custom of plugging Cornus at the Chongyang Festival was already common in the Tang Dynasty. Ancient people thought that inserting cornelian cherry on the day of Chung Yeung Festival could protect them from disasters; they wore them on their arms, or put them inside incense bags, or inserted them on their heads. Mostly women, children wear, some places, men also wear. Chrysanthemum Festival to wear cornelian cherry, in the Jin Dynasty Ge Hong "Western Scripture Miscellany" has been recorded. In addition to wearing dogwood, people also wear chrysanthemums on their heads. This was already the case in the Tang Dynasty and has been practiced throughout the ages. In the Qing Dynasty, the custom of the Chongyang Festival in Beijing was to put chrysanthemum branches and leaves on doors and windows to "lift up the evils and attract good luck". This is a variation of the head hairpin chrysanthemum. Song Dynasty, there will be colorful silk cut into cornelian cherry, chrysanthemum to give each other to wear.
Customs of Chung Yeung Festival
In addition to the above more common customs, there are also some unique forms of festivals around.
The Chongyang Festival is the official harvesting season in northern Shaanxi province, and a song says: "The ninth day of the ninth month of September, harvesting ah ah ah harvesting busy fall. Grain ah, surimi ah, on ah on the field". Shaanbei over Chongyang in the evening, the day is a full day of harvesting, playing field. At night, the moon over the treetops, people love to enjoy buckwheat boiled mutton, to eat dinner, people go out of their homes in twos and threes, climbed the nearby hills, lit a fire, talk about the sky and the earth, to be called by the chickens before going home. Night hiking, many people are picking a few handfuls of wild chrysanthemums, go home and inserted in the daughter's head, in order to avoid the evil spirits.
PuXian in Fujian, people follow the old custom, to steam nine layers of Chongyang rice fruit, China's ancient times have Chongyang "food bait" custom, "bait" that is today's pastries, rice fruit and so on. Song Dynasty "Jade Candle BaoDian" cloud: "nine days of food bait, drink chrysanthemum wine, the time of corn, broomcorn and harvest, in order to stick to the flavor of rice to touch the class to taste the new, and then become a habit. Early Qing Dynasty Putian poet Song Zuqian "Min wine song" said: "I was shocked to hear that the festival is near the Chung Yeung Festival, the delicate hand with a basket to pick up the wild fragrance. Pestle and mortar pounded into a green powder wet, the pearls call Lang taste". In recent times, people have also converted the rice fruit into a very distinctive Jiuzhong Rice Fruit. High-quality late rice with water washing, soaking for 2 hours, drained, mixed with water and ground into a thin pulp, add alum (dissolved in water) mixing, plus red plate sugar (mixed with water boiled into a thick liquid sugar), and then placed in a steamer on the pot, laying on a clean cooking cloth, and then divided into nine, scooped into the rice fruit pulp, steamed for a number of hours that is cooked out of the cage, the surface of the rice fruit smeared with peanut oil. This rice fruit in nine overlapping layers, can be uncovered, cut into diamond angles, four sides of the hierarchy, was translucent body, eaten sweet and soft to the mouth, and does not stick to the teeth, can be called the best gift to honor the elderly Chung Yeung food.
Masses in some places also have the opportunity to take advantage of the Chung Yeung mountaineering, sweeping ancestral tombs, commemorating the ancestors. Putian people to Chongyang ancestor worship than the Qingming for more, so there is a custom to March for the small Qingming, the ninth for the big Qingming said. Due to the Putian coast, the ninth day of the ninth month is also the anniversary of Mazu's ascension to heaven, the townspeople go to the Mazu Temple in Meizhou or the ancestral shrine of Tin Hau in the harbor and the palace to offer sacrifices and seek blessings.
After the founding of New China, the Chongyang Festival was enriched with new activities, and in 1989, it was designated as the Day of the Elderly. The first to this day, all over the world to organize the elderly mountaineering autumn tour, broaden their horizons, exchanges of feelings, physical exercise, and cultivate people back to nature, love the motherland's great mountains and rivers of noble character.