Legends of Double Ninth Festival
A long time ago, there was a family living at the foot of Lishan Mountain. They worked very hard in the field, so life was not bad for them.
One day, the husband met a fortune teller on his way home. It was late, and the fortune teller had nowhere to have a rest, so the husband invited the fortune teller to his house. Because the house was very small, the whole family had to sleep on the grass in the kitchen after letting the fortune teller rest on their kang (a heatable brick bed).
The next dawn, when the fortune teller was about to go, the husband asked his wife to prepare breakfast for him. Just as the fortune teller was leaving, the host gave a bag of white steam and bread to him for his travel. The fortune teller was moved by the kind host. He got out and observed the house for a while. At last, he warned the host: “On the double ninth day, go to some heights the whole family can enjoy. Too legit, too legit to quit.” Then he left.
The host felt puzzled. He wondered: Why should I go heights, since I don’t want to get a high position in officialdom? But thinking of the fortune-teller’s ability to tell misfortune, he decided to do as the fortune teller said.
On September 9, the host took his family to climb the high peak of Lishan Mountain with food. Just as they reached the top of the mountain, a torrent of rain suddenly rushed out form the mountainside and swept away their huts! The family was surprised to see the whole valley submerged in a flood. They realized that the fortune teller had known all of this and that’s why he asked them to climb some heights.
This story was vague. On September 9, entire families, the young and the old, all people climb heights. A custom was gradually formed and passed down to today.
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