The origin of the September 9th Festival

The Origin of Chongyang Festival

The Chongyang Festival is also known as the Festival of Ascending Heights. On this day, people climb up to see the distance and miss their relatives. As the poem says: "Every festive season is a time to think of relatives." So how did the Chongyang Festival come about?

Originally, China's ancient nine called "Yang number", the ninth day of the ninth month of the lunar calendar, the two nine overlap, are Yang number, and therefore known as "Chongyang". Chongyang Festival from the Taoist story of a fairy: East Han Dynasty, Ru Nan County, there is a young man called Huan Jing's countryside, parents, wife and children of a large family. Although the day is not good, half food and half grain can get by. Unfortunately, something unfortunate happened. Both sides of the Ru River caused a plague, families are sick, corpses all over the place, no one buried. This year, Huan Jing's parents also died of illness.

When Huanjing was a child, he heard his elders say, "There is a plague demon living in the River Ru, and every year it comes out and walks around the earth. Wherever it went, it brought the plague with it. Huanjing was determined to learn from his masters, to fight the plague, and to rid the people of its evils. When he heard that a great immortal named Fei Changfang lived in the southeastern mountains, he packed his bags and set out for the mountains to learn from his master.

Fei Changfang gave Huanjing a Demon Sword. Huanjing woke up early and went to bed late, wearing stars and moonlight, practicing day and night. In the blink of an eye is another year, that day Huanjing is practicing sword, Fei Changfang came to the front and said: "This year, September 9, Ruhe plague demon again to come out. You should hurry back to your hometown to get rid of the plague for the people. I'll give you a bag of cornelian cherry leaves and a bottle of chrysanthemum wine, so that your hometown fathers and mothers can ascend the heights to avoid the disaster."

Huanjing returned to his hometown and gathered his folks. He gave the words of the Great Immortal to the group. On the ninth day of the ninth month, he led his wife, children, folks and elders to climb a nearby mountain. He gave each person a piece of cornelian cherry leaf, saying that if he carried it with him, the plague would not dare to come near him. He also poured out chrysanthemum wine and gave each person a peck, saying that drinking chrysanthemum wine would prevent him from contracting the plague. He put the townspeople to arrange a good, with his demon-subduing Green Dragon Sword back to the home, sitting alone in the house, waiting for the plague demon to come to fight the demon-subduing.

Not long after, only to hear the roar of the Ru River, the strange wind swirled up. The plague demon came out of the water and walked up the bank, through the village, walked thousands of string ten thousand households did not see a person, suddenly looked up to see people are in the high mountain gathering. It scurried to the bottom of the mountain, only to feel the wine gas pungent, cornelian flush lungs, do not dare to climb close to the mountain, and then turned back to the village. Only to see a man is sitting in the house. Then roared and pounced forward. Huan Jing saw the plague demon pounced, hastily dance sword to meet the battle. After a few rounds of fighting, the plague demon can't fight him, pulling his legs and running, Huanjing "whoosh" threw out the Demon Bucking Green Dragon Sword, only to see the sword flashing with a chilling light to the plague demon chasing after him, penetrating through the heart and lungs of the plague demon to zap down to the ground.

After that, the people on both sides of the Ru River were no longer victimized by the plague. People passed down the story of the 9th day of the 9th lunar month, when Huanjing stabbed the plague demon, from father to son and from son to grandson, until now. Since then, people have been celebrating the Chongyang Festival with the custom of ascending the heights on the ninth day of the ninth month.

The origin of the Chongyang Festival

The Chongyang Festival on the ninth day of the ninth month of the ninth month of the ninth lunar month, also known as the "Festival of the Ninth Day of the Ninth Month," is a festival to honor the ancestors and to sweep the graves of the deceased.

Origin

The Chongyang Festival, which originated in the Warring States period, was originally a day of joy. The ancients categorized everything in heaven and earth into yin and yang, with yin representing darkness and yang representing light and vitality. Odd numbers are Yang and even numbers are Yin. Nine is an odd number, and therefore belongs to the yang. On the ninth day of the ninth month, the sun and the moon meet at nine, and the two yangs overlap, so it is called "Chongyang".

This day, in the mid-autumn season, the sky is high, it is a good time to climb up and look around, soothing the mind. Many Chinese literati throughout the ages, whenever this time, climbed to the high place, one side drinking chrysanthemum wine, one side poetry for fun, leaving countless poems.

September, the cold winter is about to descend, people began to add winter clothes, they also do not forget to burn paper clothes in worship ancestors, so that the ancestors in the netherworld winter. In this way, the Chongyang Festival has evolved into a festival of sweeping tombs and burning winter clothes for the ancestors.

How it is celebrated

The Chung Yeung Festival, like other traditional festivals, is a festival of family reunion; it is also a festival to honor the family members of one's ancestors. In Singapore, there are still some guilds that keep the custom of ancestor worship on Chrysanthemum Day, which is called the "Autumn Festival".

Others may choose to celebrate this day in a more traditional way, such as going outdoors as a family or with friends to enjoy the natural scenery and bond with friends and relatives.

On the ninth day of the ninth month of the lunar calendar, the month and day are both nine numbers, and the two yangs overlap, hence the name Chung Yeung Festival. Chongyang Festival as a recreation-oriented festival, the main customary activities are climbing, chrysanthemum, drink chrysanthemum wine, insert dogwood, but also to eat cake.

One of the most prominent customary activities is to ascend the heights, the custom of ascending the heights began in the Western Han Dynasty, Liu Xin "Xijing Miscellaneous Records" cloud: "March on the already, September Chongyang, the women's game, the purification of the purification of the heights," the author will be the heavy nine and heavy relative to the three and pointed out the intention of ascending to drive away evil spirits and avoid disaster. Tang Dynasty poet Du Mu's "nine days of Qishan ascension" also described:

September 9 of the lunar calendar, is China's traditional festival of the Chongyang Festival, also known as the "heavy nine festival" "Cornucopia Festival". Today's Chongyang Festival, a clever combination of traditional customs and modern civilization, has become a festival for the elderly to respect, honor, love and help them. China in 1989 will be the day of the year as the Day of the Elderly, every day, all over the world to organize the elderly mountaineering autumn excursions, broaden their horizons, exchanges of feelings, physical exercise.

The younger generation of many families will also assist their elderly elders to the countryside.

There are many folk activities to celebrate the Chrysanthemum Festival, which generally include traveling to enjoy the scenery, climbing up to a high altitude, viewing chrysanthemums, inserting cornelianthus all over the countryside, eating Chrysanthemum cakes, drinking chrysanthemum wine, and so on. In folklore, cornelian cherry is "to avoid evil spirits" and chrysanthemum is "to prolong the life of the guest", the combination of the two, to give the custom of Chrysanthemum Day to the auspicious omen.

Chrysanthemum is also known as heavy nine, because the "I Ching" in the "nine" as the number of Yang, September 9, two nine overlap, the ancients believe that it is an auspicious day to celebrate. The ninth day of the ninth month, as early as the Spring and Autumn and Warring States period has appeared. According to documents, at that time, the folk have climbed high, drink chrysanthemum wine custom.

China's people have always had a special feeling for the festival of Chung Yeung, Tang poetry and Song dynasty lyrics have a lot of congratulations on Chung Yeung, chrysanthemum masterpieces. For example, the Tang Dynasty poet Wang Wei's "September 9 Memories of Shandong Brothers": "Alone in a foreign land is a foreigner, every festive season doubly homesick. I know from afar where my brothers are climbing up, and I have less Cornus officinalis to plant." Li Bai's "The Immediate Events on the Tenth Day of September": "Yesterday I climbed up to the high altitude and raised my goblet again this morning. The chrysanthemums are too bitter to suffer this double sunrise."