What is the significance of the Double Ninth Festival?

The significance of the Double Ninth Festival is to respect ancestors, respect the elderly and be grateful.

Double Ninth Festival is a traditional folk festival in China, which falls on the ninth day of the ninth lunar month every year. The number "Nine" is a positive number in the Book of Changes, and the two positive numbers of "Nine Nine" are relatively heavy, so it is called "Chongyang"; It is also called "Double Ninth Festival", because both the date and the month conform to nine. 1999 returns to the truth, starting with one yuan. The ancients thought that 1999 Chongyang was an auspicious day.

In ancient times, the Double Ninth Festival had the customs of climbing to pray for blessings, worshipping gods and ancestors, and drinking and praying for blessings. Inherited to this day, it has increased the connotation of respecting the elderly. Climbing mountains and enjoying autumn and giving thanks and respecting the elderly are two important themes of today's Double Ninth Festival.

In the historical development and evolution, the Double Ninth Festival is a mixture of various folk customs, bearing rich cultural connotations. In the folk concept, "nine" is the largest number, which means longevity, and it places people's wishes for the health and longevity of the elderly. On May 20th, 2006, the Double Ninth Festival was included in the first batch of national intangible cultural heritage in the State Council.

The Historical Evolution of Double Ninth Festival

The origin of ancient traditional festivals is related to ancient primitive beliefs, sacrificial culture, astronomical phenomena, calendars and other humanistic and natural cultural contents, and contains profound cultural connotations of respecting morality, courtesy and music civilization.

Double Ninth Festival has a long history. In ancient times, the north and the south had different customs. In the pre-Qin period, local customs had not been integrated and circulated, and the activities of the Double Ninth Festival were rarely recorded in writing. The existing written records about the custom of the Double Ninth Festival can be found in Qiu Ji Ji of Lu Chunqiu, which records the ancient people's activities of offering sacrifices to the Emperor of Heaven and ancestors in September. According to textual research, the origin of the Double Ninth Festival can be traced back to ancient times, when there were ritual activities to worship gods and ancestors in autumn and season.

The custom of Chongyang was popular in the Han Dynasty, which was a period of economic and cultural exchanges and integration between the north and the south of China. Cultural exchanges in various places made the custom spread. The Han Dynasty work Miscellanies of Xijing contains the ancient custom of seeking longevity on the Double Ninth Festival. This is the earliest record of the custom of seeking longevity on the Double Ninth Festival in written materials. It is said that this was influenced by ancient wizards (later Taoist priests) who pursued immortality and collected drugs. At the same time, there are also large-scale banquet activities, which developed from the banquet during the Qingfeng period in the pre-Qin period.

Baidu Encyclopedia-Double Ninth Festival