The Double Ninth Festival @Manitoba is a project in the 150th anniversary celebration of Manitoba. This is a celebration of Chinese traditional festival sponsored by the Manitoba 150 Celebration Committee and organized by the Winnipeg Chinese Senior Association. 2020 is the 150th anniversary of the founding of Manitoba. Our association has prepared a series of events to celebrate and bless the people living on this land, and to promote the cultural diversity in Manitoba and cultures carried on this land. Due to COVID pandemic, we postponed the celebration in 2021, and moved the live event to the Internet.

Not long after Manitoba was established as a province in 1870, Chinese ancestors began to immigrate and settle on this land in 1885 following the construction of the Canadian Pacific Railway, operating convenience stores, laundry rooms and restaurants. So far, there are nearly 20,000 Chinese Manitobans living in this land, about 1.5% of the population of Manitoba. For more than one hundred years, the Chinese Manitobans were born here, grew up here, and end up here. The Chinese culture they inherited has also become a part of the diverse cultural spectrum of Manitoba. Today we gather here to celebrate the Double Ninth Festival, the traditional festival of Chinese culture, and to promote one of the core values of Chinese culture: respect for the elderly.

The Double Ninth Festival is on September 9th of the lunar calendar every year. On the Double Ninth Festival, folks have the customs of climbing high to pray for blessing, traveling in autumn to appreciate chrysanthemums, and being grateful and respecting the elderly. "We are honored to celebrate the Double Ninth Festival with everyone," said Jiang Yan, the president of the Winnipeg Chinese Senior Association. "The Double Ninth Festival is also call Chong Yang Festival, and through this traditional festival, we will show the Chinese community's cultural tradition of respecting the elderly and the living conditions of the elderly in the community." The Winnipeg Chinese Senior Association organized activities to celebrate the Double Ninth Festival here this year and took this opportunity to showcase the traditional Chinese cultural values of respecting the elderly and being grateful, which have existed and passed down on this land for more than 100 years and will continue to carry forward. The Double Ninth Festival will be hosted on October 16, it includes two parts. The first part is fitness exercises from 8 am to 6 pm, including traditional Tai Chi and Baduanjin exercises suitable for the elderly. The second part is " The Double Ninth Festival @Manitoba" celebration from 7 to 10 in the evening, which brings the audience a wonderfully traditional Chinese festival experience.