Double-Male Festival

Today is a public holiday in Hong Kong, Chong Yang, a festival which has long since died out in mainland China. So what was its original significance?
The character Chong can mean double or repeated, and Yang is the male or bright principle in the duality of Yin and Yang. Nine is the most “male” number — odd numbers being male and nine being the largest single digit odd number — and the festival is held on the ninth day of the ninth month in the lunar calendar.
The origins of the custom of climbing into the hills, drinking wine and reciting poetry is a bit more obscure. The ninth month is the “chrysanthemum moon,” so displays of chrysanthemums and chrysanthemum wine were popular at parties of the literati, along with snacks of flower cakes and meals of crab.
Interestingly, this was also known as the festival of daughters — married women would return to their parents’ home for a meal, perhaps because most of the menfolk were up in the mountains drinking.
Consider this passage from a 1927 edition of “The Moon Year” by Juliet Bredon and Igor Mitrophanow, published by Kelly and Walsh in Shanghai:
“Rich men arrange scaffoldings of varying heights, called ‘chrysanthemum hills,’ to show off their finest specimens — flaming chariot-wheels with petals for spokes, balls of fire with lambent tongues, variegated pin-wheels in nature’s day-fireworks, jewelled stars of her own Legion of Honour — each plant in a porcelain pot, itself a work of art, but fading in comparison with the loveliness of flowers painted by the Great Artist. Other connoisseurs build ‘flower towers,” gold, or mauve, or copper-red, in the corners of their reception rooms….
The popular legend regarding the holiday is no older than the Han dynasty, a late invention to account for the primitive myth. It tells of a soothsayer who warned a virtuous scholar of a terrible calamity impending. ‘Hasten!’ said he to his friend, ‘with all your kith and kin, climb to the shelter of the mountains, till there is nothing between you and the sky, and take with you food and drink.’ The scholar thanked his counsellor and followed his advice, carrying with him a paper bag containing food, and a jug of chrysanthemum wine. Returning at the end of the day, he found his cattle and poultry had died a violent death. ‘That,’ said he to his family ‘would probably have been our fate, but for the warning.’”
Meanwhile, “Annual Customs and Festivals in Peking” by Tun Li-ch’en and translated by Derk Bodde, published by Henri Vetch in Peiping in 1936, has this to say:
“On this day people of the Capital take a kettle and winecups, and go out to the suburbs to climb some high spot. In the south they go to such places as the Temple of Heavenly Peace (T’ien Ning Ssu), Joyful Pavilion (T’ao Jan T’ing), and the Dragon-Claw Locust Tree (Lung Chao Huai). In the north are such places as the Density of Trees Surrounding the Gate of Chi (Chi Men Yen Shu) and the Wall of Pure Metamorphosis (Ch’ing Ching Hua Ch’eng). Farther away are the Eight Buddhist Temples in the Western Hills (i.e., Pa Ta Ch’u). Reciting poetry and drinking wine, roasting meat and dstributing cakes–truly this is a time of joy.”
At least Hong Kong people will be barbecuing and drinking today, keeping one part of the tradition alive.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, October 7th, 2008 at 2:12 am and is filed under Books, China, Hong Kong, Travellers' Tales. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.