The Double Ninth

Today, we are celebrating (read that as official holiday) the Double Ninth or Chung Yeung Festival. The ninth day of the ninth month in the lunar calendar, which this year falls on October 30.

A traditional Chinese festival, wrapped around the concept that according to the I Ching, nine is a yang number and therefore the ninth day of the ninth lunar month, or double nine, has too much yang (a traditional Chinese spiritual concept) and is thus a potentially dangerous date. To protect against the danger, it is customary to climb a high mountain, drink chrysanthemum wine, and wear a plant named zhuyu.

Well, I live half way up a little mountain so I'm figuring that will count towards satisfying that criteria. I'll have a chrysanthemum tea (vs wine), which is delicious, but as I'm not really into wearing plants, I'll give the zhuyu a miss.

In these more modern times, many families take this opportunity to do a second round of grave sweeping or ancestor worship (the first being the Ching Ming Festival, 104th day after the winter solstice, which fell on the 5th of April this year).

But I'm here at work (and blogging just a little as a respite from a very intense couple of hours spent doing an international benefits survey) because I need to get really caught up as.....

drum roll please

I managed to convince my boss that I can actually be away for a few days so I'm taking to the skies again and will be gone from Friday until next Tuesday. No disappointment this time and 'he' has managed to organise things at his end too. We're both overwhelmingly happy at the way this has all worked out.

I'll only get there in the evening on Friday and I've got an early Monday flight to start my journey back home. Is it a long way to go to spend just a weekend? Yes, it is. But sometimes you just have to step over the threshold of that open door and embrace what lies beyond it.

My arms are open and I know his are too.