Chongyang Festival Ancestor Worship
On the ninth day of the ninth lunar month, commonly known as “Chongjiu”,
The number nine is an odd number and is considered a “yang” number, and since nine is the largest of the odd numbers,
it is also called “Chongyang Festival.”
According to legend, during the Eastern Han Dynasty, a man named Huan Jing encountered an immortal named Fei Changfang,
who advised him to have his entire family tie a pouch containing dogwood on their shoulders and climb a high mountain on the ninth day of the ninth month to avoid disaster.
Huan Jing followed this advice that day, and when he returned home,
he found that all his livestock had died. Thus, he realized that climbing high to avoid disaster was indeed effective. This practice spread,
and from then on, it became a custom to insert dogwood and climb high on Chongyang Festival to ward off misfortune. As for people in Taiwan,
on Chongyang Festival, there is a custom of holding a “general memorial” for all ancestors’ death anniversaries,
because in the past, due to scarcity of resources and poor economic conditions, it was not feasible to hold separate memorials for each ancestor; hence they unified these observances on Chongyang Festival.
by- Yinshi