Double Ninth Festival on October 18: The Origins, Customs and Observances of Chongyang
The ninth day of the ninth month in the Chinese lunar calendar is the Double Ninth Festival, known in Chinese as Chongyang, and also as the Double Nine Festival, the Height-Ascending Festival and the Chrysanthemum Festival. This year it falls on Sunday, October 18. On this day, communities across the Chinese-speaking world and Chinese communities overseas mark the festival in their own ways: climbing heights, appreciating chrysanthemums, visiting ancestral graves and paying respects to elders.
The name Chongyang, literally "double yang," comes from ancient yin-yang thought. In the I Ching, nine is a yang number; on the ninth day of the ninth month, both the month and the day are nine, so two yang numbers coincide — hence "double yang." The word Chongyang first appeared in the Three Kingdoms period: Cao Pi wrote in a letter that on the ninth day of the ninth month, "nine is a yang number, and the sun and moon correspond," and people of the time valued the day and held banquets. Nine is also a homophone of the word for "long-lasting," so the doubled nine carries wishes for longevity.
Customs for the day were already recorded in the Han dynasty imperial palace. The Miscellaneous Records of the Western Capital (Xijing Zaji) recounts that Jia Peilan, a former maid of Consort Qi, told of palace practice after leaving court: on the ninth day of the ninth month, people in the palace wore zhuyu (dogwood), ate peng'er cakes and drank chrysanthemum wine, which was said to promote longevity. These customs later spread from the palace to the wider public and have been handed down to this day.
A well-known legend is attached to the custom of climbing heights. The Xu Qixie Ji, written by Wu Jun of the Liang dynasty in the Southern Dynasties period, records that Huan Jing of Runan studied for years under Fei Changfang, who warned him that a calamity would strike his household on the ninth day of the ninth month, and that his family should tie red cloth pouches filled with zhuyu to their arms, climb a mountain and drink chrysanthemum wine to avert it. Huan did as he was told and took his family up a mountain; returning at dusk, they found their chickens, dogs, cattle and sheep all dead. As the legend spread, climbing heights, wearing zhuyu and drinking chrysanthemum wine on the ninth day became established customs.
In the Tang dynasty, Chongyang became an official festival — Emperor Dezong listed it among the "three seasonal festivals" — and officials and commoners alike climbed heights and feasted on the day. The Tang poet Wang Wei wrote "Thinking of My Brothers in Shandong on the Ninth Day of the Ninth Month". It opens with the line, "Alone in a foreign land, I am twice as homesick on a festival day," and imagines his brothers climbing with zhuyu in their hair, missing one person — himself. The poem has been read for more than a thousand years and made Chongyang a festival bound up with homesickness.
The main customs that survive today are as follows. Climbing heights: in the clear autumn weather, people climb mountains or towers to look into the distance, a practice once called "bidding farewell to the green," the counterpart of spring outings. Appreciating chrysanthemums and drinking chrysanthemum wine: the ninth month is when chrysanthemums are in full bloom, and chrysanthemum exhibitions are held in many places; traditionally, chrysanthemum wine was brewed by mixing newly opened chrysanthemum flowers, stems and leaves with millet, then sealed and stored until the following Chongyang. Wearing zhuyu: the strongly scented zhuyu plant was placed in red pouches worn on the arm or tucked into the hair, and was regarded in ancient times as a plant that warded off evil. Eating Chongyang cake: "cake" (gao) is a homophone of "high," and the cake carries the meaning of rising step by step; elaborate versions were made in nine layers like a pagoda and decorated with small coloured flags. Flying kites: some places in the south have a tradition of kite-flying at Chongyang. Ancestor worship: in many places families sweep graves and honour ancestors at Chongyang; in many places Chongyang is one of the seasons for ancestral rites.
Chongyang's link with respect for the elderly was formally established in recent decades. In 1989, the Chinese government designated the ninth day of the ninth lunar month as Seniors' Day. In 2006, the festival was entered in the first national list of intangible cultural heritage. Article 12 of the Law on Protection of the Rights and Interests of the Elderly, as revised in 2012, provides that the ninth day of the ninth lunar month each year is Seniors' Day; the revised law took effect on July 1, 2013.
The festival is observed differently from place to place. In Hong Kong, Chung Yeung is a public holiday; as it falls on a Sunday in 2026, the following day, Monday, October 19, is designated a compensatory holiday. Hong Kong residents go hiking around the festival and visit cemeteries and columbaria to pay respects to ancestors; the Food and Environmental Hygiene Department makes special traffic and joss-paper furnace arrangements at columbaria for the period each year, and the Fire Services Department has long run hill-fire prevention publicity during the Ching Ming and Chung Yeung periods. In Taiwan, Chongyang was rededicated as Senior Citizens' Day in 1966, and county and city governments customarily distribute Double Ninth cash gifts to seniors around the festival, with eligibility and amounts set by each locality. In mainland China, localities hold activities honouring seniors, group climbs and chrysanthemum exhibitions around the festival, and communities and institutions extend festival greetings to older residents. Overseas, Chinese community associations have a long-standing tradition of holding banquets for seniors and organising outings and climbs for older members at Chongyang, keeping the festival's observances alive far from home.
Source: GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 重阳节期间，市民在香港柴湾坟场拜祭先人。摄影：Sgerbic，CC BY-SA 4.0，来源：Wikimedia Commons
