What is the Double Ninth Festival to commemorate?

The Double Ninth Festival is a memorial to those who passed away.

The ninth day of the ninth lunar month is the traditional Double Ninth Festival, also known as the Festival for the Elderly. Because the Book of Changes defines six as yin, nine as yang, and on September 9, the sun and the moon are combined with yang, so it is called Chongyang, also known as Chongyang. The Double Ninth Festival was formed as early as the Warring States Period. In the Tang Dynasty, the Double Ninth Festival was officially designated as a folk festival, which has been inherited ever since.

The Double Ninth Festival originated from the worship of astronomical phenomena, which began in ancient times, spread in the Western Han Dynasty and flourished after the Tang Dynasty. According to the existing historical data and textual research, in ancient times, there were activities of offering sacrifices to heaven and ancestors in the autumn and the season; According to Lu's "Spring and Autumn Annals", when the crops were harvested in September, the ancients offered sacrifices to the heavenly emperor and ancestors to thank them for their kindness. This is the original form of the Double Ninth Festival as an autumn harvest sacrifice activity.

In modern times, the ninth day of September has been given a new meaning of respecting the elderly. Because nine is the largest number, and nine is an enduring homonym, so nine on nine and nine on nine contain a long, long and noble metaphor. In the folk concept, because nine is the largest number, and nine is homophonic with long time, it is endowed with the meaning of immortality, longevity, health and longevity.