Why do you climb mountains, enjoy chrysanthemums and drink alcohol on the Double Ninth Festival?

The golden breeze is refreshing and the red leaves are shining. autumn scenery in the garden has ushered in the ancient Double Ninth Festival.

The ancients called odd numbers such as one, three, five, seven and nine positive numbers, and even numbers such as two, four, six, eight and ten negative numbers. Nine is the pole of yang number, and September 9 is the meeting of two yang, so it is called Chongyang.

Double Ninth Festival is also called Mountaineering Festival, Double Ninth Festival and Cornus officinalis Festival. On the Double Ninth Festival, many folk customs are very popular, such as climbing mountains, enjoying chrysanthemums, enjoying dogwood and eating double ninth cake.

Then, why is there the custom of climbing on the Double Ninth Festival? According to legend, in the Eastern Han Dynasty, there was a fairy named Fei Changfang who could predict the future. Huanjing, a native of Runan, once worshipped him as a teacher. One day, Fei Changfang said to Huan Jing, "On September 9th this year, a disaster happened in your family. Ask your family to sew a crimson bag and store Cornus officinalis in it. Only on September 9, the whole family tied a dogwood bag on their arms and climbed up to drink chrysanthemum wine to eliminate the disaster. " Huan Jing did it. When he got home in the evening, he found that his cows, sheep, chickens and dogs all died suddenly, but his family escaped the disaster. Although this legend is false, later generations believe it. Since then, on September 9th every year, people climb mountains, have picnics, wear dogwood and drink chrysanthemum wine to avoid disaster.

In fact, there is some scientific reason behind this legendary custom. Because at this time of the solar term, the yang in a year reaches the extreme (the highest point), the yin begins to rise and the temperature is getting colder and colder. At this time, it is in the transitional period of solar terms. If people's bodies don't adapt to climate change, they are prone to get sick. So at this time, cultivating Cornus officinalis, drinking a small amount of chrysanthemum wine and climbing mountains have certain benefits for disease prevention and fitness, but the ancients did not clearly realize this.

The Double Ninth Festival is so famous because it is related to Tao Yuanming, a famous writer in history.

Tao Yuanming, a great poet in Jin Dynasty, loved chrysanthemums best. Chrysanthemum is a weather-resistant flower in autumn, symbolizing noble character. Tao Yuanming lived in troubled times when Jin and Song Dynasties were about to change. He was dissatisfied with the political tendency and the corruption of officials at that time, and he also had noble character. He resigned from his official position, wrote the famous Return of the Native and returned to Chai Sang's hometown (now Jiangxi Province) to live in seclusion. After farming, he planted many chrysanthemums beside the house and watched them day and night. His famous sentence "Picking chrysanthemums under the hedge, leisurely seeing Nanshan" has always been read by people. Tao Yuanming likes drinking again, but because of his poor family, he often lacks alcohol. Double Ninth Festival is the time when chrysanthemums are in full bloom. One year on the Double Ninth Festival, Tao Yuanming was enjoying chrysanthemums by the fence, and there was no wine to drink. However, he couldn't get drunk on the yellow flowers in the festival, and he was disappointed! He had to pick a handful of chrysanthemums in his hand, smell them, chew them and have fun. However, chrysanthemum can't replace wine after all. I was bored when suddenly a man in white came. It turned out that this was sent by Jiangzhou secretariat Wang Hong to bring wine to Tao Yuanming. Tao Yuanming was overjoyed. He immediately opened the jar and got drunk in front of chrysanthemum.

Therefore, some people say that drinking and enjoying chrysanthemums on the Double Ninth Festival is to celebrate Tao Yuanming's noble character of not bending over.