Double Ninth Festival, or Chong Yang Festival in Chinese, is cerebrated on the 9th day of the 9th lunar month. This is one of the traditional festivals in China which can be dated back to the Han Dynasty. The festival usually falls in October according to the solar calendar, and this year it will comes on October 5th.
According to the mysterious Chinese book “Yi Jing”, or “The Book of Changes”, the number “6” was thought to be of Yin character, meaning feminine or negative, while “9” was thought to be Yang, meaning masculine or positive. Therefore, the “9” in both month and day create Double Ninth Festival, which was considered as an auspicious day worth celebration. That's why Chinese people began to celebrate this festival from ancient times.
In addition, “Double Ninth” has the same pronunciation with the word "Jiu Jiu" (which means forever in Chinese) and the number “9” is the largest number which carries the meaning of long life in Chinese culture. Moreover, autumn also is the golden season for harvest; therefore, this special festival has more than one deep meaning. There are also a lot of famous works of Tang poem and Song poem for celebrating Chong Yang Festival.
In different regions, people engage in different activities to celebrate Double Ninth Festival, generally speaking, including activities of climbing mountains, enjoying chrysanthemum flowers, wearing dogwood, eating Chong Yang pastry and drinking chrysanthemum wine, etc.
Today, Chong Yang has been given new meanings. In 1989, Chinese government declared the holiday as Senior's Day, combining the tradition and the modern, which made it become the festival of honoring, loving and helping the seniors. Every time it comes to this day, people will organize varied activities to show their wish for the senior people that they can always keep healthy and happy.