Chrysanthemums, flower and foliage.

We're pulling up rapidly on Halloween, which means, to those of us that care, that we're also pulling up even more rapidly on the Double Ninth Festival, which is on October 30th this year. Traditionally, this is a good day to put some chrysanthemums in your house (and drink chrysanthemum wine), and wear some shan zhuyu, also known as Japanese cornel dogwood. These two flowers are used to purify the air, because the two nines (the ninth day of the ninth lunar month) mean there's an overabundance of yang.

Say what? Say this: nine is a number that's got lots of yang, according to the I Ching. And too much yang is no good. So try to relax, pay attention to growing things, and keep the air clean. Get that yang moving!

Chrysanthemum coronarium, a variety grown in China as a vegetable. For eating. And probably making wine.

It's also another day dedicated to cleaning graves, like Qingming. And it falls pretty close to All Souls' Day or Day of the Dead, when Europeans and Mexicans do pretty much the same thing -- get out of the house, do some feasting and parading, and tidy up the places where our ancestors are resting.

Halloween, of course, is the E'en (evening) before All Hallows, or All Saints' Day -- because there are more saints who deserve a feast day than there are days in the year. And the day after All Saints' is All Souls, because our unsainted ancestors deserve a break, too. All of them, all the way back.

Something to think about among the candy and costumes.

Yang is rising, and everything is stirring with the energy. The Dead are watching you.

Boo!