Chung Yang Festival (9th day of the 9th lunar month)
October 30, 2006

“Chung Yang” literally means “Double Yang”. Chinese numericals are divided into two categories, “yin” (female) and “yang” (male). Odd numbers are considered “yang” and even ones “yin”. So the 9th day of the 9th lunar month received the name of “Chung Yang”. There were a few stories related to the origin of this festival. The first was the very prosaic one that the farmers had finished their work by the 9th lunar month and were therefore celebrating the harvest and making offerings to thank the gods. As the number nine is a homonym of “long time” and “lasting” in Chinese, the 9th day of the 9th month was chosen so that it would mean “good harvests forever”.

In the second story, geography came into play. In olden times, China was mainly an agricultural nation and most people were settled in the lowlands and river districts. In summer and early autumn, these areas were often the hotbeds for infectious diseases, especially if they were located in the hot and humid parts of the country. A farmer said that a demi-god visited him one night and told him to tell the people to go up to the hills on the 9th day of the 9th lunar month, a very “yang” day, in order to avoid getting sick.

The third story was by far the most popular and colourful. In the East-Han Dynasty, there was a scholar named Huan-Ching who was accompanying his teacher on a teaching tour. In those days, before the establishment of schools, learned masters often travelled around the different states to spread their philosophies and teachings to the people. One day, the teacher told Huan to hurry home because his family would be meeting a disaster on the 9th day of the 9th lunar month. To avoid this calamity, he should take his whole family up to the mountains, drink chrysanthemum wine and wear sachets of dogwood which had a pungent odour that would ward off evil. (In Chinese herbal medicine, chrysanthemum beverages had always been reputed to have beneficial “cleansing and cooling” effect on the body system.) On returning home, they found that all their domestic animals had died, having taken the family’s place in the encounter with the evil spirits, according to Huan’s teacher interpretation.

It had been a tradition since then for the people to go to the mountains on this day, drink chrysanthemum wine for good health, and wear dogwood sachets to resist evil spirits. Some would even let their animals free in the fields in order to protect them from death. Cows, pigs, sheep and domestic fowl were very valuable in an agricultural country.

The tradition of climbing up the mountains is still in practice now, though the drinking habits may have changed. Dogwood also is seldom used, for the very reason of its pungent smell! Many folks nowadays use this day as a chance to go for a picnic or visit the graves of their ancestors, or a combination of both!

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