Day of the Chrysanthemum in Japan

September 9th (9/9) is the last of the yearly sekku (節句) or seasonal holidays in the old Japanese calendar, and is named kiku no sekku (菊の節句) or more formally chōyō no sekku (重陽の節句). The name means something like “Day of the Chrysanthemum”, and has its origins in a similar Chinese holiday called the Double Ninth Festival. The formal name chōyō (重陽) is the more Sinified name.

Because 9 is considered a “yang” number, the double 9 (September 9th) is thought to become “yin”, and thus can bring misfortune. So, like other sekku holidays, it was thought that celebrating a holiday on this day would avert disaster. Since 9 is the highest single-digit “yang” number, the “yin” misfortune was even worse. More on this in a future post.

The holiday, as the name implies, is devoted to Chrysanthemum flowers. In Heian Period Japan (8th-11th centuries), the golden age of the Imperial court, it was commonly believed that gathering the morning dew from chrysanthemums on this day, and applied to the face would keep ladies youthful looking. For example, in the famous Pillow Book by lady of the court, Sei Shonagon, she writes:

[7] … It’s charming when a light rain begins to fall around daybreak on the ninth day of the ninth month, and there should be plenty of dew on the chrysanthemums, so that the cotton wadding that covers them is thoroughly wet, and it brings out the flowers’ scent that imbues it.

translation by Meredith McKinney

People would also consume Chrysanthemum-infused rice wine, and go on picnics too.

Chrysanthemums are a popular subject for poetry as well. Sugawara no Michizane, who was later deified as the god of learning, Tenjin, wrote the following:

Japanese	Romanized Japanese	Translation
秋風の	Akikaze no	The autumn breeze
吹上に立てる	fukiage ni tateru	rises on the shore at Fukiage
白菊は	shirakiku wa	–and those white chrysanthemums
花かあらぬか	hana ka aranu ka	are they flowers? or not?
浪の寄するか	nami no yosuru ka	or only breakers on the beach?

There is also this wonderful poem from the Hyakunin Isshu anthology:

Japanese	Romanization	Translation
心あてに	Kokoroate ni	Must it be by chance,
折おらばや折おらむん	Orabaya oran	if I am to pluck one, that I pluck it? —
初霜の	Hatsushimo no	white chrysanthemums
おきまどはわせる	Oki madowaseru	on which the first frost
白菊の花	Shiragiku no hana	lies bewilderingly.

Modern day celebrations during Day of the Chrysanthemum still happen at local Shinto shrines, Buddhist temples and such, but compared to more well-known sekku such as Children’s Day or Girl’s Day, September 9th is a more low-key day. As someone who likes low-stress holidays, I think the concept is pretty neat, to be honest.