重阳节 The Double Ninth Festival

The ninthday of the ninth lunar month is the Chong Yang Festival, a traditional festivalin China. The celebrating activities are various and romantic ,includingclimbing mountains, appreciating chrysanthemums, wearing dogwoods, eatingthe Chong Yang cake and so on. "Nine" has the same pronunciation as theChinese character "jiu" which stands for "a long time", and is the biggestsingle figure. Therefore it indicts longevity.There have been a lot of poems and works celebrating Chong Yang Festival andpraising chrysanthemums since ancient times. People also believe that climbingmountains can expel bad luck, and indicates "climbing to a higher position" and "longevity". China designates the ninth day of the ninth month as Senior's Day, which combine tradition with modern times subtly to turn it into a festivalfor respecting, caring about, loving, and helping the elderly people.

农历九月初九为中国传统的节日—重阳节。庆祝重阳节的活动多彩而浪漫，包括登高远眺、观赏菊花、遍插茱萸、吃重阳糕等。“九”与汉字“久”同音，又是个位数字之最，因此寓意长寿长久。自古以来，有不少贺重阳用菊花的诗词佳作。人们还以为，登高可以驱除霉运，意指“晋升高位”和“长寿”。中国把九月九日定为老人节，传统与现代巧妙地结合，使之成为一个尊老、敬老、助老的节日。