1 . The 9th day of the 9th lunar month is the traditional Chongyang Festival, or Double Ninth Festival. It usually falls in October in the Gregorian calendar (阳历). In an ancient and mysterious book Yi Jing, or 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 the number nine in both month and day create the Double Ninth Festival, or Chongyang Festival. Chong in Chinese means “double”. Also, as double ninth is pronounced the same as the word to mean “forever”, both are “Jiu Jiu”, the Chinese ancestors considered it a lucky day worth celebration. That's why ancient Chinese began to celebrate this festival long time ago.

The custom of climbing to a height to avoid popular disease was passed down from long time ago. Therefore, the Double Ninth Festival is also called “Height Ascending Festival”. The height people will reach is usually a mountain or a tower. Ancient literary figures have left many poems describing the activity. Even today, people still crowd to famous or little known mountains on this day.

On this day, people will eat Double Ninth Gao (or Cake). 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.

The Double Ninth Festival is also a time when chrysanthemum (菊花) blooms. China is proud of different species of chrysanthemum and people have loved them since ancient times. So enjoying the flourishing chrysanthemum also becomes a key activity on this festival. Also, people will drink chrysanthemum wine. Women used to stick such a flower into their hair or hang its branches on windows or doors to avoid evilness.

In 1989, the Chinese government decided the Double Ninth Festival as Seniors Day. Since then, all government units, organizations and streets communities will organize an autumn trip each year for those who have retired from their posts. At the waterside or on the mountains, the seniors will find themselves merged into nature. Younger generations will bring elder ones to the country or send gifts to them on this day.

2 . It had been a “long” and hard walk from home to the subway station for teenager Mandy Chan when she first put on hanfu in public. Chan is one of the founders of hanfu in Hong Kong. “It was a set with a cream-colored shirt, a brown jacket in China’s Ming dynasty style and a red pleated skirt made by me,” she recalled recently, almost 10 years later.

It was not the looks from others but her limited knowledge on the traditional Chinese clothing that had made her uncomfortable. Chan added, “If anyone had asked what I was wearing, or the history behind it, I would have been afraid I couldn’t tell them the whole picture.”

However, her uneasiness had gradually gone with more in-depth research on traditional Chinese culture. Hanfu was the traditional clothing of China’s Han ethnic group that was formed in the main residential areas of the Han people in ancient China. The historical clothing has untold stories and ideas in every detail. The cutting and stitching line in the middle part of hanfu fits the spine (脊椎) of the human body and helps people to dress properly. This design, which has transcended (超越) itself as mere decoration, points to the qualities of the wearers as upright and moderate (温和的) individuals.,

“Instead of imitating people like what I used to do, I have jumped out of my comfort zone and found the style that suits me best,” Chan said. “Through hanfu, I have found myself and so many unexplored things in my life.” Chan added that she had found her lifelong passion through hanfu, which is a goal and dream that has never been absent from her life. Chan found she was not alone after falling in love with hanfu. She believes that classics will never go out of style and she herself has incorporated (使并入) hanfu into her everyday life.