Introduction of Double Ninth Festival
2 min readThe Double Ninth Festival began to be observed in the Warring States Period.In the Han Dynasty，it was called Zhuyu Festival，or Chrysanthemum Festival as there was a custom of drinking chrysanthemum wine，eating colored cakes，and hanging an herb called zhuyu（cornus officinalis）on the door.
The festival comes when the day is clear with sunny skies and crisp air-a favorable time for climbing mountains.So climbing is a popular activity to mark the day in many places.The custom of hanging zhuyu on the door and climbing mountains started in the Han Dynasty，which was endowed then with the significance of eliminating diseases and sub jugating disasters.
In the Tang Dynasty，the custom of climbing and appreciating chrysanthemumbecame so widely spread as to be taken as the main activity on this occasion，and to these，there added other activities，such as going to the mountain fair，offering sacrifices at the ancestral graves，hunting outsides，worshipping the God of fortune，bounding girls’feet.Nowadays，the Double Ninth Festival day is fixed as the Elderly Day，on which activities are held to show respect and love to the elderly people.
The Origin of Double Ninth Festival
Double Ninth Festival falls on the ninth day of the ninth lunar month.It is one of the popular traditional Chinese festivals.According to traditional Chinese yin and yang theory，nine is a yang number，therefore it is also called Double Yang Festival.For some time in history，it was called Mountain-Climbing Festival and Zhuyu Festival，as there was a custom of climbing mountains and wearing zhuyu（a herb）.
According to Miscellany of the Western Capital written by Liu Xin in the Han Dynasty，as early as in the West Han Dynasty，the practice of wearing zhuyu and drinking chrysanthemum wine on Double Ninth Festival was popular，and it was considered beneficial to people’s health and conducive to longevity.
