Why is September 9 the Double Ninth Festival?

The ninth day of the ninth lunar month every year is the Double Ninth Festival. Do you know why it is the Double Ninth Festival? Next, let us take a closer look at the relevant content of the Double Ninth Festival.

Why is September 9 the Double Ninth Festival?

The ninth day of the ninth month in the lunar calendar is called "Double Ninth Festival" because two yangs overlap. "Nine" is both a "yang number" and an "extreme number" in ancient mathematics. It refers to the height of the sky as "nine layers" and the extreme of the earth as "nine springs". Nine is the most worshipped mysterious number in faith. On the ninth day of the ninth month, both the sun and the moon are nine, which is a double nine, so it is called "Double Ninth". It is also two yang numbers together, so it is called "Double Ninth", so this day is the Double Ninth Day. The ancients believed that September 9 was a very auspicious day, so on this day of the Double Ninth Festival, people would enjoy chrysanthemums, wear dogwood, bring wine to the mountains, and swim and drink happily.

September 9th is also known as Elderly Day.

September 9th is also called the day for the elderly, because "jiujiu" is homophonic with "long", which means "long time", and nine is the largest number, so it is naturally easy to be given the meaning of longevity. During the Western Han Dynasty, people began to hold banquets to celebrate longevity at this time. In 1989, September 9th of the lunar calendar was designated as Senior Citizens' Day, advocating that the whole society establish a culture of respecting, honoring, loving and helping the elderly. In addition, many countries also have their own Respect for the Aged Day or Senior Citizens' Day, but the dates vary and are distributed throughout the 12 months of the year, with Senior Citizens' Day in every month.

Customs of the Double Ninth Festival

1. The Double Ninth Festival falls in the golden autumn when chrysanthemums are in full bloom, so the custom of appreciating chrysanthemums is particularly popular during the Double Ninth Festival.

2. In ancient times, people had the custom of climbing high places on the Double Ninth Festival. Du Fu's seven-character poem "Climbing the High Place" is a famous poem about climbing high places on the Double Ninth Festival.
3. There is also the custom of eating Chongyang Cake on the Double Ninth Festival. The word "cake" has the same pronunciation as "high", which symbolizes "progress step by step" and "all things are high".
4. The custom of inserting dogwood on the Double Ninth Festival was already very common in the Tang Dynasty. The ancients believed that inserting dogwood on the Double Ninth Festival could help avoid disasters.
5. People also drink chrysanthemum wine on the Double Ninth Festival. Chrysanthemum wine is regarded as an auspicious wine that must be drunk on the Double Ninth Festival to ward off disasters and pray for blessings. Because "jiujiu" has the same pronunciation as "jiu", the saying "jiujiu" should be drunk with chrysanthemum wine came into being.