In the past, on the 6th day of the 6th lunar month every year, in the villages people would invite those married daughters, young and old to dinner and then send them back. It is said that during the Spring and Autumn period, in the Jin State there was a Prime Minister named Huyan. He helped to protect and follow WenGong, ChongEr, to flee for the other states. After he served as the PM, he was very efficient in dealing with the official affairs. All the Jin people paid great respect to him. On the 6th day of the 6th lunar month, his birth, thousands of people would send him their good wishes and tributes. As the time went by, Huyan became too conceited and caused a lot of complaints. But he was in power, nobody would dare to oppose to him.
Huyan had a daughter. Her father-in-law was another famous accomplished official, Zhaoshuai. He was very unhappy about Hu's behavior and often persuaded him in a blunt way, but Hu would turn a deaf ear to Zhao's words and even scolded him in public. Zhao was so old and weak that he died in anger. Zhao's son was so angry about Hu's ingratitude that he decided to take revenge on Hu.
In the next autumn there happened a nationwide famine in the state. Hu left the capital to distribute the stored grain in other places. Before he left he said he would come back for his birthday celebration. Hu's son-in-law heard of this and decided to take advantage of that celebration party to kill Hu. He asked his wife," is there anybody who doesn't hate your father?" His wife was also angry about her father and answered without thought," even I hate my father." After she was told the murder plan by her husband, her face flushed and said, "As your wife, I must throw off my father. You can do everything if you decide."
Since then, she was anxious all day and night. She hated her conceited and inhuman father, but she knew she was well treated by her father. At last she told the bad news to her mother and her mother hurried to tell Hu. Hu's son-in-law knew everything had come public, he decided to wait for his death at home.
On the morning of Hu's birthday, Hu went to Zhao's houses and invited his son-in-law to his houses. At the party Hu apologized to his son-in-law honestly and promised to get rid of his mistakes. In order to remember this lesson in his lifetime, he would invite his daughter and his son-in-law to his houses to get together on the same day. After this thing was known to many people, they liked to learn from Hu's formality with the hope to get rid of grudge and bitterness. This custom has become very popular for a long time and has been observed as Aunt's Day.
