Wang Laihua, a professor at Tianjin Academy of Social Sciences, said that the ninth day of the ninth lunar month is called the Double Ninth Festival because there is a saying in the Book of Changes that "Yang is nine". This record is about the Western Zhou Dynasty, and its connotation is that "six" is regarded as a negative number, "nine" is regarded as a positive number, and the second and ninth phases on September 9 are regarded as "heavy nine", and the sun and the moon are combined.
As a traditional festival in China, the Double Ninth Festival was mentioned in the works of the Southern and Northern Dynasties. But the "Double Ninth Festival" here does not refer to the Double Ninth Festival. During the Three Kingdoms period, the name of the Double Ninth Festival was officially recorded in the Nine Days Double Ninth Festival written by Cao Pi. During the Wei and Jin Dynasties, there was a custom of enjoying chrysanthemums and drinking alcohol. It was not until the Tang Dynasty that the Double Ninth Festival was designated as a formal folk festival, which was celebrated all over the world. In the Ming dynasty, the imperial palace ate flower cakes together to celebrate, and the emperor himself went to Long Live Mountain to climb the mountain to celebrate the autumn annals. In the Qing Dynasty, this custom still prevailed.
Wang Laihua further introduced that "Double Ninth Festival" and "Nine Nine" are homophonic, and nine is the largest number in the number, which means longevity, and autumn is also the golden season for bumper harvest in a year. Therefore, the Double Ninth Festival has a far-reaching impact, and people have always had special feelings for this festival. Therefore, there are many customs in the Double Ninth Festival, including sightseeing in autumn, playing near the water, climbing high and overlooking, watching chrysanthemums, planting dogwood everywhere, eating double ninth cake and drinking chrysanthemum wine.
Folklore experts say that with the development of the times, today's Double Ninth Festival has been given a new meaning. 1989, China designated September 9th every year as "Festival for the Elderly" and "Festival for Respecting the Elderly", which became a festival to respect, love and help the elderly.