Chinese folk tradition has always been the Chung Yeung climbing high, in addition to climbing high, do you know Chung Yeung Festival and what customs?

Golden autumn sends cool, Dan Gui fragrance, the lunar calendar on the ninth day of the ninth day of the Chrysanthemum Festival, rich activities, fun, there are climbing high, chrysanthemum, drink chrysanthemum wine, eat Chrysanthemum cake, dogwood insertion 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 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 the place of ascending to the heights, but it is generally to climb high mountains and towers. There is also the custom of eating "Chrysanthemum Cake".

Eating Chrysanthemum Cake

According to historical records, the Chrysanthemum Cake is also known as the 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 appreciating chrysanthemums and drinking chrysanthemum wine originated with Tao Yuanming, a great poet of the Jin Dynasty. Tao Yuanming was famous for living in seclusion, famous for poetry, famous for wine, and famous for his love of chrysanthemums; later generations followed his example, and then there was the custom of enjoying chrysanthemums at the Chrysanthemum Festival. 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 was prevalent, and there were many varieties of chrysanthemums with a variety of shapes and sizes. 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, viewing chrysanthemums 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.

Inserting Cornus and Hairpin Chrysanthemums

The custom of inserting Cornus on the Chongyang Festival was already common in the Tang Dynasty. Ancient people believed that inserting cornelian cherry on the day of Chung Yeung Festival could protect against disasters; or wear it on the arm, or make an incense bag to put the cornelian cherry inside and wear it, and also insert it on the head. 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 cornelian cherry, 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. 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, to commemorate 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 Tin Hau Ancestral Shrine and Palace in the harbor to offer sacrifices and ask for blessings.

After the founding of New China, the Chung Yeung Festival was enriched with new activities. 1989, the Chung Yeung Festival was designated as the Elderly People's Day. The first to this day, all over the world to organize the elderly mountaineering autumn excursions, broaden their horizons, exchange of feelings, exercise, and cultivate people back to nature, love the motherland's great mountains and rivers of noble character.