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Chong yang festival-重陽節-Double Ninth Festival-重九節 - customs and rituals 不同之宗教特式

Chong yang festival 重陽節

Chong yang festival (重陽節)

Chong yang festival (重陽節) is also known as the double ninth festival (重 Chong, 'double', 九 gau,'nine') as it occurs on the ninth day of the ninth month of the Chinese lunar calendar.

According to traditional Yin Yang theory the number nine is regarded as yang or masculine therefore the ninth day of the ninth month is a double yang day, hence the name "Chong yang festival"(重陽節). The imbalance of double yang makes this day a potentially dangerous date.

the origins of festival dates back to han dynasty 221-206 bce it tells fei jiang fang a legendary taoist monk and pharmacist in eastern with magical healing powers ability see into future one day he had premonition regarding his students huan ching warned

“On the ninth day of the ninth moon, great calamity will strike your home. You must quickly tell your family to sew a cloth bag and fill it with dogwood branches. This you must hold tightly in your hand and ascend to the mountain top and there drink chrysanthemum wine. If you do all of these things as instructed, you will be able to avoid disaster.”

Huan Ching followed his masters advice and ascended into the mountains with his family, the following day he returned to the village to find, that all of his chickens, dogs, and sheep, and other animals had been violently slaughtered. Upon hearing this many families each year on the ninth day of the ninth lunar month ascend into the mountains carrying dogwood branches and drinking chrysanthemum wine to avoid calamity.

Modern day Chong yang has lost most of its original meaning and has become a time to show filial piety to the aged and ancestral worship. Much like spring times Qing ming festival, chinese families travel up the mountains to visit ancestral graves and perform cleansing rituals and pay their respects. They would eat "Chong yang cake (重阳糕) sometimes known as "huagao" (花糕 -literally flower cake). In Chinese "ko (粿) or cake" has the same pronunciation as "ko (高 or height)" , in doing so they hope to progress in everything they do.

 

Chong yang festival (重陽節)

The ninth month is also when chrysanthemums blossom, Chinese believe chrysanthemum have cleansing qualities therefore they will drink chrysanthemum tea (菊花茶 ) and in some cases chrysanthemum wine, some women will put chrysanthemum flowers in there hair to help ward away evil.In 1989 the Chinese government designated Chong yang festival as Senior's Day, a day to respect the elderly and to let them enjoy themselves.

 

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