Double ninth festival information

The Double Ninth Festival is also called ascensiontide. On this day, people climb high and look far and miss their loved ones. As the poem says, "I miss my relatives twice every festive season." So how did the Double Ninth Festival come about?

It turns out that in ancient China, nine was called "Yang number" and the ninth day of the ninth lunar month, both of which were Yang numbers, so it was called "Chongyang". The Double Ninth Festival originated from a fairy tale in Taoism;

In the Eastern Han Dynasty, there was a young man named Huan Jing in runan county, with both parents and a wife and a son. Although life is hard, you can get by with half a meal. Who knows, unfortunate things have come. There are plagues on both sides of the Ruhe River, every family is sick, and no one is burying bodies everywhere. This year, Huan Jing's parents also died of illness.

When Huan Jing was a child, he heard an adult say, "There is a god of plague living in Ruhe, who goes out for a walk every year. It takes the plague everywhere. Huan Jing is determined to learn from the teacher and destroy the evil for the people. I heard that there lived a big fairy named Fei Changfang on the southeast mountain, so he packed his bags and set off for the mountain to learn from his teacher.

Fei Changfang gave Huan Jing a demon-reducing dragon sword. Huan Jing got up early and went to bed late, dressed in Dai Yue, and practiced day and night. Another year in a blink of an eye. Huan Jing was practicing sword that day when Fei Changfang came forward and said, "On September 9th this year, the plague god of Ruhe will come out again. Hurry back to your hometown and kill people. I will send you a bag of dogwood leaves and a bottle of chrysanthemum wine to let the elders in your hometown climb the mountain to avoid disaster. " Xianweng said, "Just point your finger, and a crane spreads its wings and lands in front of Huanjing. Huanjing boarded the crane and flew to Runan.

Huan Jing returned to his hometown and called the villagers. Tell everyone what daxian said. On September 9, he led his wife, children and fellow villagers to a nearby mountain. Cornus officinalis leaves are divided into pieces, saying that they can be carried with you, so plague demons can't get close. Then pour out the chrysanthemum wine, and everyone pecked it, saying that drinking chrysanthemum wine would not catch the plague. After arranging the villagers, he returned home with his dragon sword to subdue the demon, sitting alone in the house, waiting for the arrival of the plague demon and struggling to subdue the demon.

After a while, I heard Ruhe roaring and the strange wind spinning. The god of plague came out of the water and walked ashore through the village. There is no one in thousands of families. Suddenly, he looked up and saw people gathering on the high mountain. It jumped to the foot of the mountain and only felt the pungent smell of alcohol. Kaunus was so anxious that he couldn't climb near, so he turned around and walked to the village. I saw a man sitting in the room. Just shout and jump forward. Huan Jing saw that athel Loren was coming, so he drew his sword to fight. After several rounds, Mo Wen fought with him, but he ran away. Huan Jing threw the dragon sword out with a whoosh, only to see the sword flashing cold light chasing the plague demon and throwing it to the ground through his heart and lungs.

Since then, the people on both sides of the Ruhe River have never been harmed by the plague demon. The story of climbing a mountain on September 9 to avoid disaster and stabbing a demon to death with the sword handed down from generation to generation has been passed down from son to grandson and has been passed down to the present. Since then, people celebrate the Double Ninth Festival and have the custom of climbing mountains on the Double Ninth Festival.

The Double Ninth Festival is near late autumn, the atmosphere is cool, the air is fresh and the visibility is high, which is probably why people choose to climb high and overlook!

There are many customs in the Double Ninth Festival, such as climbing mountains, enjoying chrysanthemums, drinking chrysanthemum wine, eating double ninth cake and inserting dogwood, which are full of fun. Climb the peak

In ancient times, Chongyang had the folk custom of climbing, so Chongyang Festival was also called "Climbing Festival". According to legend, this custom began in the Eastern Han Dynasty. There are many climbing poems written by scholars in the Tang Dynasty, most of which are the custom of writing the Double Ninth Festival. Du Fu's Seven Laws "Ascending the Mountain" is a famous article about climbing the mountain in Chongyang. There is no uniform rule for climbing mountains. Generally, we climb mountains and towers. There is also the custom of eating "Chongyang cake".

Eat Chongyang cake

According to historical records, Chongyang cake, also known as flower cake, chrysanthemum cake and five-color cake, is made randomly. At dawn on September 9th, put a cake on the child's head and say something in his mouth, wishing the child all the best. This is the original intention of the ancients to make cakes in September. Exquisite Chongyang cake should be made into nine layers, like a pagoda, with two lambs on it, which conforms to the meaning of Chongyang (sheep). Some people even put red paper flags on Chongyang cakes and light candles. This is probably replacing "crawling" with "lighting" and "eating cakes" and replacing Cornus officinalis with a little red paper flag. At present, there is still no fixed variety of Chongyang cake, and the soft cakes eaten around Chongyang Festival are called Chongyang cakes.

Enjoy chrysanthemums and drink chrysanthemum wine.

The Double Ninth Festival is the golden autumn season of the year, and chrysanthemums are in full bloom. It is said that appreciating chrysanthemum and drinking chrysanthemum wine originated from Tao Yuanming, a great poet in Jin Dynasty. Tao Yuanming is famous for his seclusion, his poems, his wine and his love for chrysanthemums. Later generations have followed suit, so Chongyang has the custom of enjoying chrysanthemums. In the old days, literati and officialdom also combined chrysanthemum appreciation with banquets in order to get close to Tao Yuanming. In the Northern Song Dynasty, Kaifeng was the capital, and chrysanthemum appreciation on Chongyang was popular. At that time, there were many varieties and shapes of chrysanthemums. People also call September of the lunar calendar "Chrysanthemum Month". On the Double Ninth Festival, chrysanthemums are in full bloom in Ao Shuang, and viewing chrysanthemums has become an important part of the festival. After the Qing dynasty, the habit of enjoying chrysanthemums was particularly prosperous, and it was not limited to September 9, but it was the most prosperous around the Double Ninth Festival.

Evodia rutaecarpa and chrysanthemum

The custom of inserting Evodia rutaecarpa in the Double Ninth Festival was very common in the Tang Dynasty. The ancients thought that inserting Evodia rutaecarpa on the Double Ninth Festival could take refuge and eliminate disasters. Or wear it on your arm, or make a sachet and put it in it, or wear it on your head. Most of them are worn by women and children, and in some places, men also wear them. Ge Hong's Miscellanies of the Western Classics in the Jin Dynasty recorded that Kaunus participated in the Double Ninth Festival. Besides wearing dogwood, people also wear chrysanthemums. This happened in the Tang Dynasty and has been popular since ancient times. In the Qing Dynasty, the custom of Beijing Double Ninth Festival was to stick chrysanthemum branches and leaves on doors and windows to "eliminate evil and filth, and make money and treasure". This is the vulgarization of the chrysanthemum on the head. In the Song Dynasty, some people cut ribbons into dogwood and chrysanthemum and gave them to each other.

In addition to the above common customs, there are some unique festivals in some places. In the season of the official harvest of the Double Ninth Festival in northern Shaanxi, there is a song that says, "In September, it will be Double Ninth Festival, so autumn is busy." Xiaomi, Xiaomi, go up, go up. The Double Ninth Festival in northern Shaanxi is in the evening, and one day is a whole day of harvesting and threshing. In the evening, in the treetops, people like to eat buckwheat noodles and instant-boiled mutton. After dinner, people go out of their homes in twos and threes, climb the nearby hills, light a fire and talk about everything until the cock crows. When climbing mountains at night, many people will pick some wild chrysanthemums and put them on their daughters' heads to ward off evil spirits.

In Puxian, Fujian, people follow the ancient custom of steaming nine layers of Chongyang rice fruit. In ancient China, there was a custom of "eating bait" on Double Ninth Festival, which is today's cake and rice fruit. "Jade Candles Collection" in the Song Dynasty said: "Those who drink chrysanthemum wine after the nine-day eclipse will certainly receive millet glutinous rice at that time, and they will taste new things because of the sticky taste of rice, thus becoming a habit." Song Zuqian, a poet of Puxian in the early Qing Dynasty, said in "Minjiu Qu": "When you smell the festival near Chongyang, you are shocked to hear the wild incense, and you can pick up the wild incense with your hand." The jade pestle is pounded into green powder, and the pearl is called Langwei. Since modern times, people have transformed rice fruit into a unique nine-fold rice fruit. Wash high-quality late rice with clear water, soak it for 2 hours, take it out and drain it, mix it with water and grind it into slurry, add alum (dissolved in water) and stir, add brown sugar (boiled with water to make a thick sugar solution), then put it on a steamer, spread a clean cooking cloth, then scoop in rice slurry for nine times, steam for a few minutes and cook it out, and coat peanut oil on the rice noodles. This rice fruit is divided into nine layers, which can be uncovered and cut into water chestnuts. Four sides are distinct and translucent. It is sweet, soft and delicious, and it doesn't stick to teeth. Respect for the elderly is the best gift for Chongyang.

In some places, people also have the opportunity to climb mountains, sweep graves and commemorate their ancestors in Chongyang. People in Puxian worship ancestors more than Qingming, so there is a saying that it is small in March and big in September. Due to the coastal area of Puxian, the ninth day of September is also the anniversary of Mazu's ascension to heaven. Villagers often go to the Tianhou Palace and the Palace Temple in Mazu Tempel or Meizhou to pray.

After the founding of New China, the Double Ninth Festival is also known as the "Festival for the Elderly". 1989, the Double Ninth Festival in China was officially named Old People's Day. Every year, the Double Ninth Festival on the ninth day of the ninth lunar month is designated as the National Day for Respecting the Elderly. The Chinese nation has the traditional virtue of respecting the elderly. Before and after the Double Ninth Festival, the Party and the government carried out various activities to respect the elderly, such as holding symposiums, hosting banquets for the elderly, silver-haired trips, physical examinations, giving gifts and helping workers. Most places also organize elderly people to go hiking in autumn to broaden their horizons, exchange feelings and exercise, and cultivate people's noble character of returning to nature and loving the motherland.