Today marks the traditional Double Ninth Festival, or the Chongyang Festival, celebrated on the ninth day of the ninth lunar month.

Double Ninth Festival celebration has a long history of over 2,000 years, dating back to the Warring States period (206 BC - 220 AD), first marked as a ritual of worshiping the ancestors and deities for blessing the harvest. Gradually, activities including admiring the autumn flowers, drinking flower wine or tea and climbing the highlands joined the celebration of the festival as ways to keep healthy. Nowadays, the festival has also endowed with the meaning of paying respect to the elderly.

Dogwood (cornel) and chrysanthemum are two important plants for the festival.

Dogwood is a species of evergreen arbor with a heavy-scent. Ancient Chinese believed it could expel insects, prevent diseases and avoid disasters, therefore they would put on dogwood twigs on the arms or head or put the berries in sachets as a wish of being healthy.

Chrysanthemum originated in China and has been cultivated for long. The flower was favored by many poets through the ages, and because it is one of the few flowers that bloom in late autumn, on Double Ninth Festival, ancient Chinese people usually gathered and admired the blooming flowers. People gave many meanings to the flower, including fortune, nobility and longevity. On the day of Double Ninth, they would also drink chrysanthemum tea and wine as they believed the flower could help them gain a strong physique against the upcoming cold weather.

(Cover image designed by CGTN's Li Yueyun; video courtesy to Li Yujun and Wei Wei from Ruoxi Han Culture Club in Xinyang Agriculture and Forestry University. )

(If you want to contribute and have specific expertise, please contact us at nature@cgtn.com.)