Jenny Lao-Phillips
The Double Ninth or Chung Yang Festival 重陽節 falls on the October 7 this year. The ninth day of the ninth month of the lunar calendar may not involve big celebrations for many people, but it has been one of the four most important festivals for worshipping ancestors. While Lunar New Year’s Eve’s ancestor worship is part of family celebration, Ching Meng, Chung Yang and Chong Yuan seem to have become festivals about remembering the dead rather than celebrations. But Chung Yang is not about the dead.
The traditional practices of Chung Yang include climbing mountains, drinking chrysanthemum wine, eating Chungyang cakes, and decorating with cornelian cherry. Actually, most of these customs are related to health and longevity. If we look at the legends related to the Double Ninth, we can see that it is a festival for life. One legend I have found and written about some years ago is about Huan Jing, who avoided a plague by taking his family, or some versions say he took the whole village, up to a mountain. They drank chrysanthemum wine and carried zhuyu (cornelian cherry) given to Huan Jing by an immortal to protect them from illness. So, to commemorate their lucky escape from death, every year during the ninth day of the ninth month, people would repeat the practice to prevent illness and death.
There are also stories saying that the festival originated from the royal families during the Han Dynasty, when ancient kings would go to the mountain to pray to their ancestors for longevity. The royal family would also appreciate chrysanthemum in the palace on the Double Ninth day, as the number nine and the chrysanthemum flowers are both symbols for longevity. Later this annual practice by the kings became known to civilians, so everyone followed the practices to pray for longevity on the day. While I was browsing through the legends related to Chung Yang Festival, I found an even older story of the origin, long before there were dynasties.
Legend has it that Chung Yang originated from the offerings to the “big fire.” In the ancient days, our ancestors used to observe the “big fire” star, which we now know is the planet Mars, to tell time and to predict the changing of the seasons. The ancient people also worshipped the “big fire” star as a god. As the star started fading in autumn, they would parade with fire up the mountain to give their god, whom they believed went into hibernation, a send-off, because the fading of the star also signified the coming of winter. This fire celebration disappeared over time, however, seeing nature fade as leaves turned brown and flowers dying when autumn came, people still had the fear that the end was near, so they continued to climb the mountain during the season to escape from “the death” around them. That was the oldest origin I found of mountain climbing and praying for longevity during Chung Yang Festival.
There is no way to find out what the exact origin of the Chung Yang Festival was, but all these stories and legends seem to tell us that the Double Ninth Festival is a celebration of life and longevity. In the modern day, many people only relate Chung Yang Festival with mountain climbing and ancestor worship, but we have probably forgotten that all these rituals originated from escaping death and praying for longevity. The custom of drinking chrysanthemum wine and carrying zhuyu are practiced by very few nowadays, but as with mountain climbing, these customs are all for the purposes of escaping illness. So, don’t forget to pray for good health and long life this coming Double Ninth Festival.
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