The story of the Double Ninth Festival
The Double Ninth Festival is an important traditional festival in my country, which falls on September 9th in the lunar calendar. According to the binary classification of numbers in ancient China, odd numbers are yang and even numbers are yin. The month and date of September 9 are both yang numbers, so it is called "Double Ninth Festival", also known as "Chongjiu".
So do you know the legends about the Double Ninth Festival? Interested friends, please come and take a look. Double Ninth Festival Story 1:
According to legend, during the Eastern Han Dynasty, there was a plague demon in Ruhe River. Whenever it appeared, people would die every day, and the people in this area were ravaged by the plague demon. A plague took away the parents of young Hengjing, and he himself almost died due to illness. After recovering from the illness, he bid farewell to his beloved wife and fellow villagers, and decided to go out to visit immortals and learn skills in order to get rid of the plague for the people. Hengjing visited teachers everywhere to find the way, and visited famous mountain masters everywhere. Finally, he found out that there is one of the oldest mountains in the east, and there is a Fei Changfang with boundless magical power on the mountain.
Hengjing was not afraid of the dangers and the distance of the journey, wore out countless pairs of shoes, climbed over countless mountains, and finally found the high mountain and Fei Changfang, who had magical powers. The immortal was moved by his spirit, took Hengjing in, taught him the swordsmanship of subduing demons, and gave him a sword to subjugate demons. Hengjing practiced hard, forgetting food and sleep, and finally developed extraordinary martial arts.
On this day, Fei Changfang called Hengjing to him and said, "Tomorrow is the ninth day of September, and the plague demon will come out to do evil again. You have learned your skills, and you should go back to eliminate harm for the people." He He gave Hengjing a pack of dogwood leaves and a few cups of chrysanthemum wine, and secretly taught him how to ward off evil spirits, and asked Hengjing to ride a crane and ride home. Hengjing bid farewell to the immortal and returned to his hometown. On the morning of the ninth day of September, according to the immortal's instructions, Hengjing led the villagers to a nearby mountain and gave each of them a piece of dogwood leaf and a cup of chrysanthemum wine. He was ready to conquer the devil. .
At noon, with several strange screams, the plague demon rushed out of the Ruhe River. However, as soon as the plague demon rushed down the mountain, he suddenly smelled the strange fragrance of dogwood and chrysanthemum wine, and stopped suddenly, with a sudden change in his face. , at this time Hengjing chased down the mountain with a demon-quenching sword, and stabbed the plague demon to death within a few rounds. Since then, the custom of climbing on the ninth day of September has been passed down year after year. Double Ninth Festival Story 2:
It is said that a long time ago, there was a farmer living at the foot of Lishan Mountain. The whole family was very diligent and lived a good life. One day, the owner of the family came back from the fields and met a fortune teller on the way. Because it was getting dark, the fortune teller had not found a place to rest. Since the owner's house was very narrow and only had a thatched hut, he built a thatched bunk in the kitchen and let his wife and children sleep on the thatched bunk. He and the fortune teller slept on the kang, making do with it.
At dawn the next day, the fortune teller was about to leave. The villager woke his wife and cooked a delicious meal for him. He also packed a bag of steamed buns for him. The fortune teller went out, looked at the place where the banker lived, and told him: "On September 9th, the whole family will go to a higher place."
The banker thought, I don't do anything strange on weekdays, and If I don’t want to get promoted, why go to a high place? But then I thought, people often say that fortune tellers can read Feng Shui and are proficient in astronomy. Maybe something will happen to the place where I live. On September 9th, go for a walk to a higher place and let the whole family enjoy the scenery. On September 9th, villagers would take their wives and children, carry flower cakes and wine on their backs, and climb to the peak of Lishan Mountain to play. After they went up the mountain, a spring suddenly appeared halfway up the mountain and rushed straight into his house, destroying his thatched shed in an instant. In a short time, the entire ravine was soaked.
The banker then understood why the fortune teller asked his family to climb the mountain on September 9th. After this incident spread, people helped the old and the young to climb high every September 9th in the lunar calendar. This became a custom that has been passed down to this day. Customs of the Double Ninth Festival 1. Drinking chrysanthemum wine
Chrysanthemums contain nutritional ingredients. In "Baopuzi" written by Ge Hong of the Jin Dynasty, there is a record that people in Nanyang Mountain drank the sweet valley water full of chrysanthemums and prolonged their life. Drinking chrysanthemum wine during the Double Ninth Festival is a traditional Chinese custom. Chrysanthemum symbolizes longevity, and chrysanthemum wine was regarded as an "auspicious wine" that must be drunk during the Double Ninth Festival in ancient times to ward off disasters and pray for blessings. Therefore, it has become fashionable to drink and admire chrysanthemums during the Double Ninth Festival. 2. Planting dogwood
In ancient times, the custom of planting dogwood on the Double Ninth Festival was also popular, so it is also called the Dogwood Festival. Cornus officinalis is used as medicine and can be used to make wine to nourish the body and cure diseases. Planting dogwood and hairpin chrysanthemums has been very common in the Tang Dynasty. Cornus officinalis has a strong fragrance and has the functions of repelling insects, removing dampness, and driving away wind evil. It can also eliminate accumulated food and treat cold and heat. Folks believe that the ninth day of September is also a day of misfortune and disaster, so people like to wear dogwood on the Double Ninth Festival to ward off evil and seek good luck. Therefore, Cornus officinalis is also known as the "evil warder".
3. Eat Double Ninth Cake
According to historical records, Double Ninth Cake is also known as flower cake, chrysanthemum cake, and five-color cake. There is no set method for making it and it is relatively random. At dawn on September 9th, people put a piece of cake on their children's foreheads and muttered something, wishing their children all the best. This was the original intention of the ancients to make cakes in September. The special Double Ninth Festival cake should be made into nine layers, like a pagoda, with two lambs on top to match the meaning of Double Ninth Festival (sheep). Some people also put a small red paper flag on the Double Ninth Festival cake and light candles. This probably means replacing "climbing" with "lighting up lamps" and "eating cakes", and replacing dogwood with small red paper flags. Today, there is still no fixed variety of Double Ninth Cake. The soft cakes eaten on the Double Ninth Festival in various places are called Double Ninth Cake.
The above are the stories about the Double Ninth Festival that I know. Friends, what else do you know? Let me know in the comments section.