What Do Children Do for Their Elders During the Chinese Chongyang Festival?

The Chongyang Festival is celebrated on the ninth day of the ninth month of the lunar calendar every year. It is also known as the Climbing High Festival, the Double Ninth Festival, Chrysanthemum Day or Old People’s Day. With this holiday, children are taught to respect the elderly, and the best way to teach them is to lead by example.

1. The Story Behind Why There Is a Chrysanthemum Festival

The story behind why there is a Chrysanthemum Festival comes from a legend that invlolves a monster, magic, and chrysanthemum wine. Long story short, a hero saves the day by riding a crane home from a perilous journey and slaying a monster that was plaguing generations within a town. The significance of the date has to do with the number nine. In Chinese, the number 9 sounds like a word that denotes longevity, thus the Double Ninth Festival has a lot of meaning for people and is a still widely participated festival to this day.

2. What Do People Commonly do During the Chung Yeung Festival

On this day, people often stay at home with the elderly or take them out to enjoy the day. It is common to go hiking, pay respect to ancestors at their graves, enjoy chrysanthemums, eat mochi, chrysanthemum cake, bake fruits, drink chrysanthemum wine, wear dogwood and pin chrysanthemums.

Another activity is...

Send us your suggestions!

What do you think of this issue of newsletter? What would you like to learn more about? Suggest a topic! We'd love to hear from you! Also, if you have any questions about the learning materials, please feel free to drop us a line at [email protected].

Click here to forward this email to a friend

If you don't want to receive our newsletter, you may unsubscribe at anytime by clicking on the Unsubscribe below.