Double Ninth Festival: Worship the gods and respect the elderly

The ninth day of the ninth month of the Chinese lunar calendar is a traditional Chinese festival, the Double Ninth Festival, which falls on Oct 17 this year.

In Chinese culture, nine has long been regarded as the number of yang, making the day of the festival one of two yang numbers, while “chong” in Chinese means double - thus creating the name of the festival, Chongyang.

Traditional customs of the festival include reaching a mountain peak, wearing dogwood, eating double ninth cake and enjoying chrysanthemum.

Why do people climb mountains and wear dogwood on this special day？How to make the delicious double ninth cake? Why is the festival celebrated as “Senior Citizens Day” now? Click the video to learn more about the festival.

Reporter: Fu Rui

Narrator: Charlie Clarkson

Camera: Wang Yuxi & Sun Weiwei

Light: Qiao Yuhao

Subtitles: Zhou Bing

Editing: Fu Rui & Yu Xiaoou

Producer: Liu Fang & Fu Rui (Intern)

Executive Producer: Feng Minghui

Acknowledgement: Claret’s Restaurant & Johnny Li