20 Oct, the Nottingham Confucius  Institute China Ningbo Branch and Residential College jointly organized a trip to Donghai Academy for international students to celebrate the traditional festival – Double Ninth Festival (Chongyang).  41 international students and 2 professors from 10 countries participated the event.

The Double Ninth Festival is also known as the Aged People’s Day. It is a day for the young people to thank senior people’s wisdom and generous help. Therefore, a very formal ceremony was held.

The ceremony consisted of two parts. Firstly, Mr Huang, the master of Chinese national studies, performed salute ceremony to the icon of wisdom and teacher – Confucius. Then, Professor Martin Lockett, Dean of Faculty of Business of UNNC and Professor Shujie Yao, Director of Nottingham Confucius Institute China Ningbo Branch represented all the teachers to accept student representatives’ flowers, tea, fans and gifts.

They also expressed their warnings and best wishes to all the students by putting a ruler on student representatives’ shoulder to require them always remember what they should do and what they should not do.After receiving teachers’ warnings and wishes, students knocked the drum, bell and gong to make their mind to pursue their goals no matter how difficult it will be.Then the teachers passed a candle to students, to symbolize passing wisdom generation to generation.In the end of the ceremony, students appreciated Chinese culture performances.

As the Double Ninth Festival is also a day for people to climb high, students took a mountain walk thereby and enjoyed beautiful scenery of the sea and farmland. Autumn is a season of harvest, the trip ended up with oranges pick up.