Even though every festival, every cultural tradition, and every celebration in Taiwan have become quotidian details that I no longer marvel at, the love I hold for my country and its many cultural aspects has never stopped kindling.

A year has passed and quick farewells are sent to the fleeting months, but some parts of us Taiwanese never change. The ninth day of the ninth lunar month is the Chung Yeung Festival. The Chung Yeung Festival originated during the East Han dynasty and is still a day of celebration to honor our past.

Every year my family visits the chrysanthemum exhibits that my grandparents or their friends host, and we sit around a large table ornamented with neatly carved figures that usually are depicted in danqing paintings. As we drink the chrysanthemum tea, we children are stuck in repeated stories and poems about chrysanthemums that the elders hold the highest opinion of. If I were still my younger self, I might plaster on an awkward smile at the decorous but enthusiastic elders and stare absent-mindedly at the flower cakes too beautifully adorned to be eaten. But gradually, as time has chased me toward maturity, I have come to look forward to our Chung Yeung celebrations and the many aspects of my culture, as I understand the reasons behind their existence.

I have learned that the Chung Yeung Festival honors our ancestors that shoulder the lineage till our present. The 21st-century present is like someone with a pace that is often too fast for me to follow, but as I turn back to meet my eyes with our family’s past, I once again witness the good fortune I have to live as the descendant of dignified, diligent ancestors and to be born as one of the successors to perpetuate our culture. It may be true that time surpasses our reminiscences of many, but it is also true that many surpass time. And I know for sure that my culture is one.