falls on the 9th day of the 9th lunar month.
'Yang' is interpreted as '9' because it is considered
the highest (odd) single-digit number.
The number '9' holds great significance in Chinese numerological thought.
In many ways, it holds even greater importance than '10' & '12',
represented by 10 Heavenly Stems & 12 Earthly Branches.
Translated from Baidu:
1. Ancestor Worship Festival
The Double Ninth Festival, along with New Year's Eve, Spring Festival, Qingming Festival, Dragon Boat Festival, and the Mid-Autumn Festival, are all traditional Chinese festivals for ancestor worship.
China has long held the custom of honoring and remembering their ancestors. This custom is a way of showing filial piety and remembering one's roots.
2. Offering sacrifices to "Great Fire" (Antares).
One of the prototypes of the Double Ninth Festival is the ancient ritual of worshipping the fire star. The fire star, Antares (also known as 'Xin Xiu' or Heart Lunar Mansion), which served as a seasonal constellation marker in ancient times, disappears in the ninth month of autumn. The *Xia Xiaozheng* refers to this as "the inner fire of the ninth month." The disappearance of Antares not only deprived the ancients, who used it as a marker of seasonal production and life, of their temporal coordinates, but also instilled a sense of fear in those who revered it as a deity. The fire god's hibernation signified the arrival of a long winter. Therefore, during the "inner fire" season, just as a welcoming ceremony was held when it appeared, corresponding farewell rituals were performed. While the details of these ancient rituals are difficult to ascertain, traces of these customs can still be found in later Double Ninth Festival rituals. For example, in some areas of Jiangnan, there is a custom of worshipping the Kitchen God on the Double Ninth Festival, who is considered the fire god of the household. This reveals clues to the ancient worship of Antares in the ninth month. The ancients often associated the Double Ninth Festival with the Shangsi Festival or the Cold Food Festival, and the ninth day of the ninth month with the third day of the third month, as corresponding major festivals in spring and autumn. The Han Dynasty scholar Liu Xin wrote in his "Miscellaneous Records of the Western Capital": "On the third day of the third month and the ninth day of the ninth month, maids would play games and perform purification rites and climb mountains." The correspondence between the third day of the third month, the Cold Food Festival, and the Double Ninth Festival is based on the appearance of the "Great Fire" (a mythical bird).
The ancient people used the sexagenary cycle to record the years. According to the order of the twelve earthly branches, the first month is Yin, and the ninth month is Xu. Xu is the fire storehouse, and fire enters the storehouse in the month of Xu. Xu is located in the northwest and is within the Qian hexagram of the Luoshu. In the late autumn month of Xu, "Da Huo" (Antares II) retreats and hides on the ground in the northwest along with the stars in front of the Azure Dragon constellation. The Book of Changes, Qian hexagram: Use nine, see a group of dragons without a head, auspicious. In traditional culture, in the late autumn double yang, "Da Huo" retreats and is in the midst of the transformation of Qian and Kun. Qian is strong and healthy, and Kun is gentle and harmonious. The combination of the two is an auspicious sign.
3. Double Ninth Festival
The name "Double Ninth Festival" comes from the ancient book "I-Ching" which states that "the yang line is nine". In I-Ching, "six" is defined as a yin number and "nine" as a yang number, which is also the "extreme number". The height of the sky is referred to as "nine layers". "Nine" is the old yang, which is the yang's extreme number. When two yang numbers are combined, Nine times Nine returns to One. One 'Yuan' is the beginning of a new cycle and the renewal of all things. Therefore, the ancients believed that Double Ninth Festival was an auspicious day worth celebrating. In ancient times, there was a custom of drinking and feasting to pray for longevity. On the ninth day of the ninth month, both the day and the month are nine, which is called "two nines in a row", hence the name "Double Ninth". At the same time, it is also two yang numbers combined, hence the name "Double Ninth Festival". Zhang Dai of the Ming Dynasty wrote in "Night Voyage": "Nine is a yang number. Its day and the month correspond to it, hence the name 'Double Ninth Festival'."
