The Origin of Chinese Festivals

The concept of Spring Festival and the year, the original meaning comes from agriculture, the ancient people called the growth cycle of the grain "year", "Shuowen. Wo part": "year, the grain is also ripe:. In the Xia and Shang dynasties produced the summer calendar, the cycle of the moon for the month, a year divided into twelve months, each month to not see the moon for the day for the first day of the first month of the first day of the month of the son of the time known as the first of the year, that is, the beginning of the year, also known as the year, the name of the year is from the Zhou Dynasty, to the Western Han Dynasty to formally fixed, and has been continued to the present day. But the first day of the first month in ancient times was known as "New Year's Day", until China's modern Xinhai Revolution victory, the Nanjing Provisional Government in order to comply with the farming season and facilitate statistics, the provisions of the summer calendar in the civilian population, in the government agencies, factories, mines, schools and organizations in the implementation of the Gregorian calendar to the Gregorian calendar for the first day of the first month of New Year's Day, the first day of the first month of the Lunar New Year, the Chinese New Year.

2 Winter Solstice Festival:

The winter solstice festival originated in the Han Dynasty, flourished in the Tang and Song dynasties, and continues to this day. Qingjiazhu" even "winter solstice is as big as the year" said. This shows that the ancients attached great importance to the winter solstice. People believe that the winter solstice is the natural transformation of yin and yang, is a blessing from heaven. The Han Dynasty to the winter solstice for the "Winter Festival", the government to hold a congratulatory ceremony called "He winter", routine vacation. After the Han Book has this record: "before and after the winter solstice, the gentleman to settle down and quiet body, all officials are no business, do not listen to the government, choose the auspicious moment and then save." So this day the court up and down to take a holiday, the army on standby, the border closed, business, friends and relatives with food gifts, visit each other, happy to have a "quiet body" holiday.

Tang, Song period, the winter solstice is the day of sacrifice to the ancestors, the emperor on this day to the outskirts of the ceremony held in heaven, the people on this day to the parents of the elders of worship, and now there are still some places in the winter solstice this day to celebrate the festival.

3 Dragon Boat Festival:

The Dragon Boat Festival is an ancient traditional festival, which began in the Spring and Autumn and Warring States periods in China, and has a history of more than 2000 years. There are many origins and legends of the Dragon Boat Festival, only the following four are introduced:

Originally commemorating Qu Yuan

According to the Records of the Grand Historian (史记), "Qu Yuan Jia Sheng Lianzhuan" records that Qu Yuan was a minister of King Huai of Chu during the Spring and Autumn Period. He advocated for the promotion of the virtuous and the capable, the enrichment of the country and the strengthening of the army, and advocated for the alliance of Qi against Qin, which was strongly opposed by the aristocrat Zilan and others, and Qu Yuan was forced to leave his post, driven out of the capital city, and exiled to the Yuan and Xiang basins. During his exile, he wrote such immortal poems as "Li Sao", "Heavenly Questions" and "Nine Songs", which are unique and far-reaching (thus, the Dragon Boat Festival is also known as the Poets' Festival). In 278 B.C., the Qin army attacked the capital of Chu. Qu Yuan saw his motherland being invaded, and his heart was cut to pieces, but he could not bear to give up his motherland, and on the 5th of May, after writing his final poem "Huai Sha", he threw himself into the Miluo River, and died, composing a magnificent piece of patriotism with his own life.

Legend has it that after Qu Yuan's death, the people of Chu were in mourning and flocked to the Miluo River to pay homage to him. The fishermen rowed up their boats and salvaged his real body back and forth on the river. A fisherman took out for Qu Yuan prepared rice balls, eggs and other food, "flop, flop" thrown into the river, said that the fish and lobsters and crabs eat enough, will not go to bite the body of Dr. Qu. People see have followed suit. An old physician to bring a altar of yellow wine poured into the river, said to be drug stunned dragon water beasts, so as not to harm Dr. Qu. Later, for fear of rice balls for the dragon to eat, people came up with neem leaves wrapped rice, wrapped in colorful silk, the development of brown. Later, on the fifth day of May every year, there is a dragon boat race, eat zongzi, drink xionghuang wine custom; in order to commemorate the patriotic poet Qu Yuan.

Originally Commemorating Wu Zixu

The second legend of the Dragon Boat Festival, which is widely circulated in Jiangsu and Zhejiang, commemorates Wu Zixu during the Spring and Autumn Period (770 - 476 BC). Wu Zixu, a native of Chu, had his father and brother killed by the king of Chu. Later, Wu Zixu abandoned his darkness and ran to Wu to help Wu conquer Chu, and entered Ying City, the capital of Chu, in five battles. At that time, King Ping of Chu had already died, and Zixu dug up his grave and whipped his body 300 times to avenge the killing of his father and brother. After the death of King Helu of Wu, his son Fu Chai succeeded to the throne. The Wu army had high morale and won a hundred battles, and the Yue kingdom was greatly defeated, and King Goujian of Yue asked for peace, and Fu Chai agreed to it. Zixu suggested that the state of Yue should be completely destroyed, but Fu-chai refused to listen to him, and Wu's Dazai, who had been bribed by the state of Yue, framed Zixu with slanderous rumors, and Fu-chai believed him and gave Zixu a sword, which he used to kill himself. Zixu was a loyal and good man, and he looked upon death as a homecoming. Before his death, he said to his neighbors, "When I die, I will dig out my eyes and hang them on the east gate of Wu Jing to see the Vietnamese army entering the city to destroy Wu", and then he killed himself. Fu Chai was furious at the news, and he ordered to take the body of Zixu and put it into a leather bag to throw it into a big river on the fifth day of the fifth lunar month, so it was said that the Dragon Boat Festival was also the day to commemorate Wu Zixu.

The third legend of the Dragon Boat Festival commemorates Cao E, a filial daughter who saved her father's life and threw herself into the river during the Eastern Han Dynasty (23 - 220 A.D.). Cao E was a Shangyu people in the Eastern Han Dynasty, his father drowned in the river, a few days to see the body, the filial daughter of Cao E was only fourteen years old, day and night along the river crying. After seventeen days, she threw herself into the river on May 5, and carried her father's body out five days later. The story was passed down as a myth, and the story was passed down to the governor of the county, who made Dushan erect a monument for it, and had his disciple Handan Chun write a eulogy in praise of it.

The tomb of Cao E, a filial daughter, is located in Shaoxing, Zhejiang Province, and the monument to Cao E is said to have been written by Wang Yi of the Jin Dynasty. To commemorate Cao E's filial piety, a Cao E Temple was built at the place where Cao E threw herself into the river, the village where she lived was renamed Cao E Town, and the place where Cao E died for her father was named Cao E River.

Originally from the ancient Vietnamese national totem sacrifice

Many recent excavated artifacts and archaeological research has confirmed that: the vast area of the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River, in the Neolithic era, there is a geometric printed ceramic as a characteristic of the cultural remains. The remains of the clan, according to experts deduced that it is a tribe that worships the totem of the dragon ---- historically known as the Baiyue tribe. Unearthed pottery on the decoration and historical legends show that they have the custom of breaking hair tattoos, living in the water countryside, comparing themselves to the descendants of the dragon. Their production tools, a large number of stone tools, but also shovels, chisels and other small pieces of bronze. As a living thing in the altar pots and jars, cooking food printed pots are unique to them, is one of the symbols of their ethnic groups. Until the Qin and Han Dynasties, there were still Baiyue people, and the Dragon Boat Festival was the festival they created for ancestor worship. Over thousands of years of history, most of the Baiyue people have been integrated into the Han Chinese, while the rest have evolved into many ethnic minorities in the south, making the Dragon Boat Festival a festival for the entire Chinese nation.

4 Tanabata Festival:

The Tanabata Begging for Handicrafts, this festival originated in the Han Dynasty, the Eastern Jin Dynasty Ge Hong's "Xijing Miscellany" has "the Han color women often wear seven holes in the seventh day of the seventh month in the seven holes of the needle in the Kaixiao building, people are practicing" record, this is the earliest we have seen in the ancient literature on the begging for handicrafts records. Later in the Tang and Song poems, women's begging was also repeatedly mentioned, Tang dynasty Wang Jian poem said "appendicular stars and buckets decorated with pearl light, Tanabata palace e begging busy". According to "Kaiyuan Tianbao remains": Emperor Taizong of Tang Dynasty and his consort every Tanabata night banquet in the Qing Palace, the palace ladies beg, this custom in the folklore is also enduring, and continue from generation to generation.

Song and Yuan times, Tanabata begging is quite grand, the capital also has a market specializing in the sale of begging items, the world known as begging city. Song Luo Ye, Jin Ying Zhi collection of Drunken Weng said: "Tanabata, Pan Lou before the sale of begging objects. Since July 1, car and horse anger throat, to three days before Tanabata, car and horse do not pass, one after another congestion, no longer come out, to the night square dispersal." Here, from the begging city to buy begging objects, we can infer the lively scene of the Tanabata Begging Festival at that time. People from the first day of July began to set up begging objects, begging city on the traffic, the flow of people like tide, to the approaching Tanabata time, begging city has become a sea of people, cars and horses difficult to travel, to see its style, seems to be no less than the grandest festival - the Spring Festival, indicating that begging for the festival is the ancients are one of the most favorite festivals.

5 Qingming Festival;

China's traditional Qingming Festival began around the Zhou Dynasty, and has a history of more than 2,500 years. Qingming is a very important festival in the beginning, once Qingming arrives, the temperature rises, it is a good time for spring plowing and planting, so there is "before and after Qingming, planting melons and beans". "Tree planting, no more than the Qingming" proverbs. Later, due to the Qingming and cold food days close, and cold food is the folk ban on fire sweeping days, gradually, cold food and Qingming on the merger of one, and cold food has become a Qingming alias, but also become a custom for the Qingming festival, Qingming day does not move fireworks, only eat cold food.

On the cold food, there is such a legend:

According to legend, during the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, in order to let his son Xi Qi succeed the throne, Li Ji, the consort of Duke Xian of Jin, set up poisonous plots to kill the Prince Shen Sheng, who was forced to commit suicide. Shen Sheng's younger brother, Chong Er, went into exile in order to escape the disaster. While in exile, Chong Er suffered a lot of humiliation. Most of the ministers who followed him went their own way one after another. There were only a few loyal men left who followed him all the way. One of them was called Jie Zi Tui (介子推). Once, Chong Er passed out from hunger. In order to save Chong Er, Jie Zi Pui cut off a piece of meat from his own leg, cooked it over a fire and gave it to Chong Er to eat. Nineteen years later, Chong Er returned to his country and became the ruler, Duke Wen of Jin, one of the famous Five Hegemons of the Spring and Autumn Period.

When Duke Wen of Jin came to power, he rewarded those who had suffered with him, but he forgot about Jie Zi Tui. Some people complained for Jie Zi Tui in front of Duke Wen of Jin. Duke Wen of Jin suddenly remembered the old story, the heart of shame, and immediately sent to ask mesoteric push on the court to be rewarded by the official. However, after several trips, Jie Zi Tui did not come. Duke Wen of Jin had to go in person to invite. However, when Duke Wen came to Jie Zi Tui's house, he saw that the door was closed. Jie Zi Tui didn't want to see him, and had already carried his mother to hide in Mianshan Mountain (southeast of present-day Jiexiu County, Shanxi Province). The Duke of Jin then sent his imperial army up to Mianshan to search for him, but they did not find him. So, someone came up with an idea, saying that it would be better to set fire to the mountain, lighting fires on three sides and leaving one side behind, so that when the fire started, Jie Zi Tui would come out on his own. Duke Wen of Jin ordered the fire to burn the mountain, but the fire burned for three days and three nights, after the fire was extinguished, did not see Kai Zi push out. Up the mountain to see, jiezi push mother and son holding a big charred willow tree has died. Duke Wen of Jin looked at the body of the mesquite push to cry and worship for a while, and then buried the remains, found the mesquite push the spine blocked a willow tree hole, the hole seems to have something.

Cutting out the flesh and serving the king, I wish my lord would always be clear.

It is better to be a ghost under the willow than to be an advisor to the king.

If you have me in your heart, you will always think of yourself when you remember me.

If I am not ashamed of myself in the nine springs, I will be diligent and clear in my administration.

Duke Wen of Jin hid the bloody book in his sleeve. Then he buried Jie Zi Tui and his mother under the charred willow tree. To commemorate Jie Zi Tui, Duke Wen of Jin ordered that Mian Shan be changed to "Jie Shan", built a shrine on the mountain, and designated the day the mountain was set on fire as the Cold Food Festival, telling the whole country to abstain from fireworks and to eat only cold food on this day every year. When he left, he cut a piece of burnt willow wood and made a pair of wooden clogs in the palace, looking at them every day and sighing, "Woe is the foot." "It is said to be the origin of the ancient term of respect from subordinates to superiors or from peers to peers. The next year, the Duke of Jin led his ministers to pay homage on foot to the grave in plain clothes to express their condolences. When they arrived at the grave, they saw the old willow tree come back to life, with thousands of green branches dancing in the wind. Duke Wen of Jin looked at the resurrected old willow tree and saw it as if he had seen Jie Zi Tui. He went to it respectfully, pinched a branch and wove a circle on his head. After the cleaning, Duke Wen of Jin gave the name "Qingming Willow" to the resurrected old willow tree, and designated this day as the Qingming Festival. Afterwards, Duke Wen of Jin often put the book of blood on his side, as a motto to spur himself to rule. He was diligent and clear, and tried his best to govern the country well. After that, the people of Jin were able to live in peace and work happily, and they missed Jie Zi Tui very much. On the day of his death, people banned fireworks to commemorate him. Also with flour and jujube clay, kneaded into the swallow, with willow string up, inserted in the door, to summon his soul, this thing is called "the push of the swallow" (jiezitui also known as jiezhitui). Since then, the cold food and Qingming became the grand festivals of the people all over the country. Whenever cold food is served, people do not make fire to cook and only eat cold food. In the north, the people only eat pre-made cold food such as jujube cake, wheat cake, etc.; in the south, it is mostly green dumplings and glutinous rice candy root. Every Qingming, people weave willow into a circle and wear it on their heads, and stick willow branches in front of and behind their houses to show their remembrance.

6 Lantern Festival:

Lantern Festival is a traditional Chinese festival, as early as 2000 years ago in the Western Han Dynasty, the Lantern Festival began in the Eastern Han Dynasty Ming Di period, the Ming Di advocated Buddhism, heard that the Buddhist monks on the fifteenth day of the first month of the Buddha's relics, lighted lamps to honor the Buddha's practice, the order of the night in the palace and temples lighted lamps to honor the Buddha, so that the scholarly commoners have hung lamps. Later, this Buddhist ceremonial festival gradually formed a grand folk festival. The festival has gone through the development process from the palace to the folk, from the Central Plains to the whole country. At the time of Emperor Wen of the Han Dynasty, the 15th day of the first month was designated as the Lantern Festival. During the reign of Emperor Wu of Han Dynasty, the sacrifice of "Taiyi God" was set on the 15th day of the first month. (Taiyi: the god who dominates everything in the universe). When Sima Qian created the "Taichu Calendar", the Lantern Festival was already recognized as a major festival. Another theory is that the custom of burning lanterns at the Lantern Festival originated from the "Three Elements" of Taoism; the 15th day of the first month of the lunar calendar is the Upper Elements Festival, the 15th day of the seventh month is the Middle Elements Festival, and the 15th day of the tenth month is the Lower Elements Festival. In charge of the upper, middle and lower three yuan respectively for the sky, earth, human three officials, the heavenly officials happy, so the lanterns should be lit on the Lantern Festival. Lantern Festival festival period and festival activities, is with the development of history and extend, expand. In terms of the length of the festival, the Han Dynasty only one day, to the Tang Dynasty has been three days, the Song Dynasty is up to five days, the Ming Dynasty is since the eighth light, until the night of the seventeenth day of the first month of the light, the whole ten days. With the Spring Festival, the daytime for the city, bustling, night lights, spectacular. Especially the delicate, colorful lights, making it the climax of the entertainment activities during the Spring Festival. To the Qing Dynasty, and added a dragon dance, lion dance, running boats, stilt walkers, twisting rice-planting songs and other "hundreds of theater" content, just shortened the festival period of four to five days.

7 Mid-Autumn Festival:

The Mid-Autumn Festival has a long history, and other traditional festivals, is also the slow development of the formation of the ancient emperors had a spring festival of the sun, the fall festival of the moon ritual system, as early as in the book of the "Zhou Rites", the word "Mid-Autumn" has been recorded. Later, the aristocrats and scholars also followed suit, in the mid-autumn festival, to the sky and bright and round round moon, ornamental worship, to send feelings, this custom is so spread to the people, forming a traditional activity, until the Tang Dynasty, the custom of the moon festival more people attach importance to, the Mid-Autumn Festival has become a fixed festival, "the Book of the Tang Dynasty - record of the Emperor Taizong," recorded in the "15th of August, the Mid-Autumn Festival "

The Mid-Autumn Festival is one of the major festivals in China, and it was celebrated in the Song Dynasty, and has become one of the major festivals in China, along with the New Year's Day.

The legend of the Mid-Autumn Festival is very rich, Chang'e Runs to the Moon, Wu Gang Falters the Cinnamon, the Jade Rabbit Pounds Medicine, and other mythological stories have been widely circulated.

One of the legends of the Mid-Autumn Festival - Chang'e Runs to the Moon

Legend has it that, in ancient times, there were ten suns in the sky at the same time, sunburned the crops withered and died, and the people were not enough to live on, and a hero named Houyi, a hero, with infinite strength, he sympathized with the suffering people, climbed to the top of the Kunlun Mountains, and carried all the divine power, and pulled open the divine bow, and shot down the sun in one breath nine more, and strictly ordered the last one to be on time, and the last one to be on time. He ordered the last sun to rise and set on time for the benefit of the people. Hou Yi was thus honored and loved by the people, and he married a beautiful and kind wife named Chang'e. Hou Yi in addition to the art of hunting, all day with his wife, people are envious of this pair of talented and loving couple. A lot of ambition to come to the teacher to learn the art, the wrong-minded Peng Meng also mixed in one day, Hou Yi to the Kunlun Mountains to visit friends to seek Taoism, coincidentally met with the Queen Mother passed through the Queen Mother, they asked the Queen Mother to get a package of immortality medicine. It is said that taking this medicine can instantly ascend to heaven and become immortal. However, Hou Yi could not leave his wife behind, so he temporarily gave the immortality pill to Chang'e to treasure. Chang'e hid the medicine in the treasure box of the dresser, but was unexpectedly seen by the villain Peng Meng, who wanted to steal the immortality pill to become immortal himself. Three days later, Hou Yi and his disciples went out to hunt, and Peng Meng pretended to be sick and stayed behind. Soon after Hou Yi left, Peng Meng broke into the backyard of the house with a sword in his hand and forced Chang E to hand over the immortality pill. Chang'e knew that she was no match for Peng Meng, and in a moment of crisis, she made a split-second decision, turned around, opened the treasure box, and took out the Pill of Immortality and swallowed it in one gulp. Chang'e swallowed the medicine, her body immediately floated away from the ground, rushed out of the window, and flew to the sky. Because Chang'e was attached to her husband, she flew down to the closest to the earth on the moon and became immortal. In the evening, Hou Yi returned home and his maids cried about what happened during the day. Hou Yi both shocked and angry, drew the sword to kill the villains, Peng Meng early escape, Hou Yi angry chest beating, grief, looking up at the night sky calling his wife's name, then he was surprised to find that today's moon is exceptionally bright and bright, and there is a swaying figure like Chang E. He desperately chased towards the moon. He desperately chased the moon, but he chased three steps, the moon back three steps, he retreated three steps, the moon into three steps, no matter how can not catch up with the front. Hou Yi had no choice but to send someone to Chang'e's favorite garden, set up incense, put on her favorite honey and fresh fruits, and sacrificed to Chang'e, who was fond of herself in the Moon Palace. When the people heard the news that Chang'e had run to the moon and become immortal, they set up incense under the moon and prayed to the kind Chang'e for good luck and peace. From then on, the custom of moon worship at Mid-Autumn Festival spread among the people.

Mid-Autumn Festival Legend No. 2 - Wu Gang folded the laurel

On the Mid-Autumn Festival there is another legend: According to legend, the laurel tree in front of the Moon's Guanghan Palace grows luxuriantly, more than 500 feet high, and there is a man who often cuts it down, but every time he cuts it down, the cut place immediately closes up again. For thousands of years, it was cut down and closed up in this way, and the laurel tree could never be cut down. It is said that the man who chopped down the tree was named Wu Gang, a man from Xihe in Han Dynasty, who had followed the immortals to the heavenly realm, but he made a mistake, and the immortals relegated him to the Moon Palace, where he was punished by doing this kind of futile and hard work day after day. Li Bai's poem, "I want to carve the laurel in the moon, and hold it as a salary for the cold".

Mid-Autumn Legend No. 3 - Zhu Yuanzhang and mooncake uprising

Mid-Autumn Festival eating mooncakes is said to have begun in the Yuan Dynasty. At that time, the people of the Central Plains were unable to endure the cruel rule of the Yuan Dynasty ruling class, and they revolted against the Yuan Dynasty. Zhu Yuanzhang united various resistance forces to prepare for the uprising. However, the imperial court officials and soldiers searched very closely, and it was very difficult to pass the news. Liu Bowen, the military advisor, came up with a plan to order his subordinates to hide the note with the message "Rise on the 15th of August" inside a cake, and then sent people to deliver it to the rebel armies around the world, informing them to rise on the night of the 15th of August to respond to the revolt. On the day of the uprising, all the rebel armies responded together, and the rebel army was like a prairie fire. Soon, Xu Da captured the Yuan capital and the uprising was successful. When the news came, Zhu Yuanzhang was so happy that he hurriedly sent down an order to let all the generals and soldiers have fun with the people in the coming Mid-Autumn Festival, and rewarded the ministers with "mooncakes", which were used to secretly deliver messages during the time of the revolt, as festive pastries. Since then, the "moon cake" production more and more fine, more varieties, as large as a disk, become a gift of goodies. After the Mid-Autumn Festival, the custom of eating mooncakes has been spread in the folklore.

8 Chongyang Festival:

JiuJiu Chongyang, as early as the Spring and Autumn and Warring States period of the "Chu words" has been mentioned. Qu Yuan's "far travel" wrote: "set Chongyang into the emperor's palace Ruoxi, made ten years and watch the Qingdu". The word "Chongyang" here refers to the day, not yet to the festival. Cao Pi, the Emperor of Wei during the Three Kingdoms period, in his book "The Book of Nine Days and Zhong Yao", had already clearly written about the Chongyang feast: "The years go by and the months come and go, and suddenly it is the ninth day of the ninth month. Nine is the number of yang, and the sun and the moon should be together, so the common people honored its name and thought that it was suitable for a long time, so they used it to enjoy the banquet." Jin Dynasty literati Tao Yuanming said in the preface to the poem "Nine Days of Idleness": "I live in idleness, love the name of the ninth day. Autumn chrysanthemums fill the garden, while holding the mash by and by, empty clothing nine Chinese, sends the mind to the words." Here both chrysanthemum and wine are mentioned. Probably in the Wei and Jin Dynasties, Chongyang Day has been the practice of drinking wine, chrysanthemum appreciation. In the Tang Dynasty, Chongyang was officially designated as a folk festival. In the Ming Dynasty, on the 9th day of the 9th month, the whole palace had to eat flower cakes together to celebrate, and the emperor had to climb to Mount Banzai in person to enjoy the autumn spirit, a custom that was passed down until the Qing Dynasty.

The legend of Chongyang Festival

Like most traditional festivals, Chongyang Festival also has an ancient legend.

Legend has it that during the Eastern Han Dynasty, there was a plague demon in the River Ru, whenever it appeared, people fell sick in every house and people lost their lives every day, and the people in this area suffered from the plague demon's ravages. A plague took away the parents of a young man, Hengjing, and he himself almost lost his life because of the disease. After he recovered from the disease, he left his beloved wife and his folks and resolved to go out to visit the immortals and learn the art of ridding the people of the plague. Hengjing went around to visit the famous masters and masters, and finally found out that there is the oldest mountain in the east, and there is an immortal with infinite magic power on the mountain. Hengjing, undaunted by the difficulties and dangers and the long distance, was guided by the crane, and finally found the mountain, and the immortal with the magical magic power. Hengjing was touched by his spirit and finally took him in and taught him the art of demon-slaying. Hengjing was so impressed by his spirit that he finally took him in and taught him the art of demon-subduing sword, and gave him a demon-subduing sword. On this day, the fairy chief called Hengjing to him and said, "Tomorrow is the ninth day of the ninth month of the ninth lunar month, and the plague demon is going to come out to do evil again, so you should go back to do away with evil for the people now that you have accomplished your skill. The fairy gave Hengjing a bag of cornelian cherry leaves and a cup of chrysanthemum wine, and taught Hengjing how to avoid the evil spirits, so Hengjing rode a crane and went back home. Hengjing returned to his hometown, and on the morning of the ninth day of the ninth month, he led the townspeople to a nearby mountain according to the immortal chief's instructions, and gave each of them a piece of cornelian cherry leaf, a cup of chrysanthemum wine, and made preparations to subdue the evil spirits. At noon, with a few screams, the plague of the devil rushed out of the Ru River, but the plague of the devil just jumped to the bottom of the mountain, suddenly smelled a burst of cornelian cherry and chrysanthemum wine, will stop, face suddenly changed, then Hengjing holding demon sword chased down the mountain, a few rounds on the Wen devil stabbed to death under the sword, from the first nine days of September to climb up to the custom of avoiding the epidemic year after year passed down. Liang Wu Jun in his "Qi Harmonious Records" book had this record. Later, people regarded the custom of ascending the heights on the Chongyang Festival as an activity to avoid disasters and calamities. In addition, in the traditional concept of the Central Plains people, the double nine is also the meaning of long life, health and longevity, so later the Chongyang Festival was established as the Festival of the Elderly.