Double Ninth Festival, also known as Double Ninth Festival, is the ninth day of the ninth lunar month. Because "Nine" is regarded as a positive number in China traditional culture, and "Nine-Nine" is homophonic for a long time, meaning longevity and health, so the Double Ninth Festival has been closely related to providing for the elderly, seeking longevity and respecting the elderly since ancient times. On the Double Ninth Festival, people will climb mountains, enjoy chrysanthemums, drink chrysanthemum wine and eat double ninth cake. Express blessings and thoughts to relatives and friends.
There are many poems about the Double Ninth Festival, the most famous of which is "Shanjiesi Shandong Brothers" written by the Tang Dynasty poet Wang Wei:
I am a lonely stranger in a strange land, and I miss my family more often during the holidays.
When I think of my brothers' bodies climbing high, I will feel a little regret for not being able to reach me.
This poem describes Wang Wei who is alone in a foreign land, but still misses his brothers and sisters in his hometown on the Double Ninth Festival. Through words such as "independence", "foreign land", "stranger" and "thinking of relatives twice in festivals", the poet's inner loneliness and thoughts are expressed. However, "I know my brother climbs the mountain from a distance, but there is a lack of one person everywhere", which vividly shows the poet's yearning for his hometown and relatives through imagination and contrast.
Besides Wang Wei's poems, other poets also wrote poems about the Double Ninth Festival. For example, Bai Juyi's Double Ninth Festival White Chrysanthemum:
A yard full of golden chrysanthemums with a bunch of flowers in the middle, the flowers are so lonely.
Just like today's feast, the old man went to the place where the young man went.
This poem expresses the poet's memories and feelings of youth by describing the white chrysanthemums at the Double Ninth Festival banquet. In the poem, "the garden is full of golden flowers and chrysanthemums" and "there are lonely flowers like frost" vividly describe the white chrysanthemums at the banquet, while "Today is still like singing a banquet, and Pulsatilla enters the juvenile court" expresses the poet's feelings about the passage of time and nostalgia for youth through metaphor and imagination.
In a word, the Double Ninth Festival is an important festival in China's traditional culture, and the poems about it are also an important part of China's culture. These poems express people's love and awe for life, yearning for their relatives in their hometown, and regret and nostalgia for the years.