Climbing Heights

The festival falls in the golden season of autumn. The comfortable weather and the joy of bringing in the harvest create a festive atmosphere. The Double Ninth Festival is usually perfect for outdoor activities. Many people go hiking and climbing mountains in the countryside.

An outing lover, who stands on a height looking afar in the month, will have a panoramic view of a blue sky with pale clouds and dark green mountains, which makes him feel carefree and joyful. So people, both ancient and present, love to go sightseeing this month.

 Watching Chrysanthemum Flowers

Chinese folks were fond of watching chrysanthemum on the Double Ninth Day long before. Its blossom in the ninth lunar month has a beautiful name of "flower of longevity". The custom of wearing chrysanthemum appeared in the Tang Dynasty already and was always very popular throughout the time afterwards. The entrances of some taverns in the Song Dynasty were decorated with the flowers on the day, which was supposed to incite customers'desire for wine. Chrysanthemum displays were usually held immediately after the day in some regions ofChinain the Qing Dynasty. People in Beijing began to stick the chrysanthemums on doors and windows to"get rid of the bad luck and bring in the good ones"which is an alteration of the custom of wearing Chrysanthemum on head. At these displays people might enjoy chrysanthemum flowers, take part in poem-composing competitions or watch painters drawing paintings of chrysanthemum flowers. The display was often lively with a sea of visitors.

Eating Double Ninth Cake

The Double Ninth cake is also known as “chrysanthemum cake” or “flower cake”. It dates back to the Zhou Dynasty. It is said that the cake was originally prepared after autumn harvests for peasants to have a taste of what was just in season, and it gradually grew into the present cake for people to eat on the Double Ninth Day. The cake was usually made of glutinous rice flour, millet flour or bean flour.

In the Tang Dynasty its surface was usually planted with a small pennant of multi-colored paper and bore at its center the Chinese character “ling” (order). The Double Ninth cake in the Song Dynasty was usually made with great care a few days before the Double Ninth Day, its surface planted with colored pennants and inlaid with Chinese chestnuts, ginkgo seeds, pine nut kernels and pomegranate seeds. It was a nice festive present for relatives or friends. In the Ming Dynasty, the imperial families customarily began to eat the cake early on the first day of the 9th lunar month to mark the festival, and the common people usually enjoyed with their married daughters the festive cake, which was basin-sized and covered with two or three layers of jujubes. The cake in the Qing Dynasty was made like a 9-storied pagoda, which was topped with two sheep images made of dough. The cake, so made, was called Chong Yang Gao in Chinese, which means Double Ninth cake as “Chong” means double, “Yang” dichotomously suggests nine and sheep, and “ Gao” means cake.

Editor: Dong Lin