Double Ninth Festival: hills, chrysanthemums and elders

The Double Ninth Festival, 重阳节 (Chóngyáng Jié), falls on the 9th day of the ninth lunar month, usually in October. Its name comes from Chinese cosmology: according to the Yijing (易经), nine is a yang number. The 9th of the 9th month therefore brings two yangs together, hence the name "double yang" (重阳); it is also called 重九, "double nine".

Cao Pi (曹丕, 187–226), the first emperor of Wei, already explains it in a letter to Zhong Yao (钟繇), which he sent with a bunch of chrysanthemums for the day: "Nine is a yang number, and both the day and the month answer to it. People like the name, which they think suits whatever lasts long; that is why banquets are held on it."

Behind this wish for things to last there is a play on sounds: 九 (jiǔ, "nine") is pronounced exactly like 久 (jiǔ, "a long time"). Double nine thus became a symbol of long life, which is one reason it is now the day for the elderly.

The central act of the festival is to climb to a high place (登高, dēnggāo): going up a hill or a mountain to picnic and drink there. The traditional story behind it is a legend recorded under the Liang dynasty by Wu Jun (吴均), in the Xu Qi Xie ji (续齐谐记).

Huan Jing (桓景), from Runan (汝南), had studied for years with the master Fei Changfang (费长房). One day the master warned him: "On the 9th of the 9th month, disaster will strike your house. Leave quickly: let each of your family make a red bag filled with zhuyu (茱萸) and tie it to their arm, climb to a high place and drink chrysanthemum wine, and the disaster will be averted." Huan Jing did as he was told and went up the mountain with his whole family. When they came back in the evening, their chickens, dogs, oxen and sheep had all died at once. "They took your place," said the master. And the text concludes: this is where the custom comes from of climbing high to drink on the 9th and, for women, of wearing a bag of zhuyu.

Other accounts exist, and the festival's origins remain obscure and debated: depending on the author, it is traced back to the Warring States or to the Eastern Han. The Xijing zaji (西京杂记), a collection of anecdotes about Chang'an (长安), the Western Han capital, has Jia Peilan (贾佩兰), a maid of Lady Qi (戚夫人), favourite of Emperor Gaozu, recall that in the palace, on that day, people wore zhuyu, ate cakes and drank chrysanthemum wine "to live long".

The ninth month is the month of chrysanthemums (菊花, júhuā). In his letter, Cao Pi notes that in this month "only the fragrant chrysanthemum blooms", and it is a bunch of these flowers that he sends. The Xijing zaji even gives the recipe for chrysanthemum wine: when the flowers open, the stems and leaves are picked too and fermented with millet, and the wine is only ready on the 9th of the 9th month of the following year. People of old believed it prolonged life.

Under the Northern Song, the capital admired chrysanthemums: the Dongjing menghua lu (东京梦华录) lists the varieties people admired, such as the "ten-thousand-year chrysanthemum" (万龄菊) or the "peach-blossom chrysanthemum" (桃花菊), and describes wine shops framing their doors with chrysanthemums. Today many cities hold chrysanthemum shows; most people drink chrysanthemum tea, and a few still make their own wine.

The festival's other plant, zhuyu (茱萸, zhūyú), is more of a mystery. The word covers several aromatic shrubs (山茱萸, 吴茱萸...), and it is still debated which one the old texts mean; it is often translated as "dogwood". It was carried in a bag tied to the arm, or tucked into the hair, when climbing high: according to the Huan Jing legend, it kept disaster away.

The Double Ninth has inspired many poets. One of the best-known poems is a quatrain by Wang Wei (王维), a Tang poet, titled "On the 9th of the 9th month, thinking of my brothers east of the mountains" (九月九日忆山东兄弟). The transmitted text carries, under the title, the note "时年十七": he was seventeen at the time.

Far from home, the young man pictures his brothers climbing high, as custom requires, each with a sprig of zhuyu:

• "Alone in a strange land, a stranger among strangers,

• at every festival I miss my family twice as much.

• I know that over there my brothers have climbed the heights;

• all of them wear zhuyu, and one is missing."

The poem voices the homesickness that grips anyone far from their family on a festival day. It is included in the anthology Three Hundred Tang Poems (唐诗三百首), and its second line, 每逢佳节倍思亲, is easy to take apart: 每逢 "every time", 佳节 "festival day", 倍 "doubly", 思亲 "to miss one's family".

On this day people eat Double Ninth cake (重阳糕), steamed, topped with chestnuts, pine nuts and other nuts and dried fruit, and stuck with a small paper flag that stands for zhuyu. Its name hides a pun: 糕 (gāo, "cake") sounds like 高 (gāo, "high"), a wish for progress and prosperity. The custom is old: under the Northern Song, people already gave each other, a day or two before the festival, steamed flour cakes stuck with small coloured flags and topped with pomegranate seeds, chestnuts, ginkgo nuts and pine nuts.

People also go walking in the hills, admire chrysanthemums or fly kites, since the wind is often strong in that season. In some regions, people visit their ancestors' graves to clean them, as at the Qingming Festival. In Hong Kong and Macau, where the Double Ninth is a public holiday, whole families go up to the graves, clean them, repaint the inscriptions and lay out offerings, roast suckling pig and fruit, which they then eat.

In mainland China, on the other hand, it is not a day off, and the festival is unevenly observed today. Its customs are still taught to children in primary school.

Since 2013, the Double Ninth has also been, by law, China's day for the elderly. The Law on the Protection of the Rights and Interests of the Elderly (老年人权益保障法), revised by the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress on December 28, 2012, and in force since July 1, 2013, states in Article 12: "The 9th day of the 9th lunar month of each year is the Day for the Elderly." The same law defines the elderly as citizens aged 60 and over.

Two reasons explain the choice: the festival was already linked to the ancestors and their graves, and nine, which sounds like "a long time" (久), stands for long life. Its meaning today is to respect and honour one's elders (尊老敬老) and to wish them a long and healthy life. Activities in their honour are held on the day (敬老活动), and it is also a time for family get-togethers. Taiwan has also made it a day for senior citizens.