The 9th day of the 9th lunar month is the traditional Double Ninth Festival in China. In ancient times, people thought that "9" is a propitious figure and a Yang (masculine) figure. As "the 9th day of the 9th lunar month" has two 9s, people call it the Do
uble Ninth Festival.
In Chinese traditional customs, the Double Ninth Festival is a festival for height ascending. Like zongzi for the Dragon Boat Festival and moon cake for the Midsummer Festival, height ascending is the symbol of the Double Ninth Festival. According to h
istory book, the festival was originated from a legend. A book written by Wu Jun of the Liang Dynasty says, "Huan Jing from Runan followed Fei Changfang in his study in other places for several years. One day Changfang said to him, 'a catastrophe will fal
l to your family on the 9th day of the 9th lunar month. You'd better go quickly back home and tell each of your family members to prepare a red bag and put some food in it and tie the bag to the leg. On that day you may take them out for height ascending
and drink crysanthemum wine and the catastrophe can be averted.' Jing did as he was told and took the whole family to climb mountain that day. By the evening they came back home, they found all their chickens, dogs, oxen and sheep had died. But the family
members escaped from the catastrophe." Later, people consider the custom of height ascending as an activity for averting catastrophes.
In the traditional concept of the people of Henan Province, "double nine" means health and long life. For this reason, the Double Ninth Festival is also considered as the Old Men's Festival. People develop all kinds of activities to cherish the old and
to show their respect for them.
The activity of planting cornel no longer exists, but crysanthemum appreciating is becoming more and more popular. As crysanthemums bloom in the 9th lunar month, the month is also called "crysanthemum month". The appreciation of crysanthemums is one of
the important activities of the Double Ninth Festival.
