Double Ninth Festival: Respect the Old and Love the Old Blackboard

Enjoy chrysanthemums and drink chrysanthemum wine.

The Double Ninth Festival is the golden autumn season of the year, and chrysanthemums are in full bloom. It is said that appreciating chrysanthemum and drinking chrysanthemum wine originated from Tao Yuanming, a great poet in Jin Dynasty. Tao Yuanming is famous for his seclusion, his poems, his wine and his love for chrysanthemums. Later generations have followed suit, so Chongyang has the custom of enjoying chrysanthemums. In the old days, literati and officialdom also combined chrysanthemum appreciation with banquets in order to get close to Tao Yuanming. In the Northern Song Dynasty, Kaifeng was the capital, and chrysanthemum appreciation on Chongyang was popular. At that time, there were many varieties and shapes of chrysanthemums. People also call September of the lunar calendar "Chrysanthemum Month". On the Double Ninth Festival, when chrysanthemums are in full bloom in Ao Shuang, watching chrysanthemums has become an important part of the festival. After the Qing dynasty, the habit of enjoying chrysanthemums was particularly prosperous, and it was not limited to September 9, but it was the most prosperous around the Double Ninth Festival.

Chrysanthemum wine

Evodia rutaecarpa and chrysanthemum

The custom of inserting Evodia rutaecarpa in the Double Ninth Festival was very common in the Tang Dynasty. The ancients thought that inserting Evodia rutaecarpa on the Double Ninth Festival could take refuge and eliminate disasters. Or wear it on your arm, or make a sachet and put it in it, or wear it on your head. Most of them are worn by women and children, and in some places, men also wear them. Ge Hong's Miscellanies of the Western Classics in the Jin Dynasty recorded that Kaunus participated in the Double Ninth Festival. Besides wearing dogwood, people also wear chrysanthemums. This happened in the Tang Dynasty and has been popular since ancient times. In the Qing Dynasty, the custom of Beijing Double Ninth Festival was to stick chrysanthemum branches and leaves on doors and windows, "to get rid of evil and filth, and to make money into treasure". This is the vulgarization of the chrysanthemum on the head. In the Song Dynasty, some people cut ribbons into dogwood and chrysanthemum and gave them to each other.

Chongyang cake

Eat Chongyang cake

According to historical records, Chongyang cake, also known as flower cake, chrysanthemum cake and five-color cake, is made randomly. It was the original intention of the ancients to make cakes at dawn on September 9. The child put a cake on his head and said a word in his mouth, wishing the child all the best. Exquisite Chongyang cake should be made into nine layers, like a pagoda, with two lambs on it, which conforms to the meaning of Chongyang (sheep). Some people even put red paper flags on Chongyang cakes and light candles. This probably means "lighting a lamp" and "eating cakes" instead of "climbing", and using a red paper flag instead of dogwood. At present, there is still no fixed variety of Chongyang cake, and the soft cakes eaten around Chongyang Festival are called Chongyang cakes.

Legend of Double Ninth Festival

Double Ninth Festival

Wu Junzhi's "Continued Harmony" contains: According to legend, in the Eastern Han Dynasty, there was a man named Huan Jing in runan county. A great plague suddenly occurred in the residence, and the parents in the dreamland died of illness, so they went to the southeast mountain to learn from the teacher. The fairy Fei Changfang gave the dreamland a demon-reducing dragon sword. Huan Jing gets up early and goes to bed late, wears a Dai Yue, studies hard and practices hard. One day, Fei Changfang said, "On September 9, the plague will come again, so you can go back and kill pests." And gave him a bag of dogwood leaves and a bottle of chrysanthemum wine, so that the elders in their hometown could climb high to avoid disaster. So he left and went back to his hometown. On September 9, he led his wife, children and fellow villagers to a nearby mountain. Take the leaves of Cornus officinalis to everyone, but the plague demon is afraid to go near. Then pour out the chrysanthemum wine, and everyone took a sip to avoid catching the plague. He fought the plague demon and finally killed it. Up to now, people on both sides of the Ruhe River are still telling stories about climbing mountains to avoid disasters and waving swords and stabbing demons on September 9. Since then, people celebrate the Double Ninth Festival and have the custom of climbing mountains on the Double Ninth Festival. Many important books, such as "Beginners" in the Tang Dynasty and "A View of Taiping" in the Song Dynasty, all recounted this story in Wu Jun's "Continuing Qi and Combining Things", arguing that the custom of women wearing dogwood bags on their arms to ward off evil spirits and avoid disasters came from this.