The Double Ninth Day, or Chongyang Festival (重阳节) in Chinese, falls rightly on the 9th day of the 9th month in its lunar calendar (Sunday 25th October this year). The Language Centre facilitated a culture talk on this theme, delivered by Sihua Tang (汤思华), a master in Education candidate from SSESW and also enthusiastic volunteer for the Chinese Language Interest Group on Friday 23rd October.

The talk covers not only the tradition and custom of the festival but also its contemporary influence within and beyond the Chinese communities. The traditional culture of practice on the special day for families, to name a few, would be

• climbing hills to a certain height (爬山登高 pá shān dēng gāo）
• drinking chrysanthemum wine (喝菊花酒 hē jiúhuājiǔ)
• making/eating Chongyang cakes (吃重阳糕 chī Chóngyánggāo）

The normal greetings to show respect and good wishes to the elderly people can be

祝您健康长寿！（Zhù nín jiànkāng chángshòu） Wish you a healthy and long life!

Local and international audience were invited in this interactive talk to contribute to the intercultural understanding of respecting the elderly from similar or diverse cultures. One thing in common is that we all want to show respect to our senior members and make them feel happy.

For more language resources on this culture talk, please click the button below to access a set of tailored flashcards.

We also would like to thank our audience, especially to Sharon Fan who sent her photos of beautiful home-made Chongyang cake after the talk for sharing.