the origin story

The 9th day of the 9th lunar month is the traditional Chongyang Festival (Double Ninth Festival).

In an ancient and mysterious book Yi Jing (The Book of Changes), number 6 was thought to be of Yin character, meaning feminine or negative, while number 9 was thought to be Yang, meaning masculine or positive. So 9 in both month and day created the Double Ninth Festival, or Chongyang Festival. 

Chong in Chinese means double. Also, as double ninth was pronounced the same as the word to signify forever, both are Jiu Jiu, the Chinese ancestors considered it an auspicious day worth celebration. That's why ancient Chinese began to celebrate this festival long time ago. 

The custom of ascending a height to avoid epidemics was passed down from the Eastern Han Dynasty. Therefore, the Double Ninth Festival is also called Height Ascending Festival.

Ancient literary figures have left many poems depicting the activity. Du Fu's poem climb, is to write the famous day. Even today, people still swarm to famous or little known mountains on this day. 　

In Chinese, Gao (Cake) has the same pronunciation with Gao (Height). People do so just to hope progress in everything they are engaged in. There is no fixed ways for the Double Ninth Cake, but super cakes will have as many as nine layers, looking like a tower. 

In 1989, the Chinese government decided the Double Ninth Festival as Seniors' Day, which is traditional and modern skillfully combined. It represents honor, respect, love and help the elderly.

Students being far away from home, perhaps have no chance to get to hometown and have a happy family reunion with the elderly. However, a simple phone call, or a greeting is a kind of warmness.

Hey guys, 

did you greet the elderly today?