China Jiangnan folk Dragon Boat Festival has the custom of eating "wuhuang". "wuhuang" refers to Monopterus albus, yellow croaker, cucumber, salted duck egg yolk and realgar wine. There are other sayings that salted duck eggs can be replaced by soybeans.
In the legend "The Legend of the White Snake", the white lady drinks realgar wine, showing the original shape of the snake. Therefore, people think that poisonous insects such as snakes, scorpions and centipedes can be cracked by realgar wine, and drinking realgar wine during the Dragon Boat Festival can exorcise evil spirits and detoxify people and keep them healthy. According to the folklore, eating wuhuang at noon can better ward off poison and evil spirits.
There is a saying in the Dragon Boat Festival, which is called: "On May 5th, the Dragon Boat Festival is celebrated with five colors and three whites." May is also called May Yellow Moon, so we should eat wuhuang during the Dragon Boat Festival: realgar wine, yellow croaker, cucumber, eel and salted duck egg yolk; I also want to eat water bamboo, salted duck egg white and boiled meat. In addition, we should eat "Yihong", which refers to amaranth (local pronunciation is close to "Khan") (the soup is red after frying with garlic).
The Dragon Boat Festival in the south of the Yangtze River also has the custom of eating "wuhuang" and "Five Whites". "wuhuang" people are cucumbers, Monopterus albus, yellow croaker, salted egg yolk and realgar wine (there are different opinions, and some people make Huangmei and Huangni snail one of the wuhuang. Because realgar is toxic, it is rare to drink realgar in liquor nowadays, and it is more common to replace realgar with yellow wine today.
The "five whites" are boiled meat, white garlic, boiled chicken, white tofu and water bamboo. Eating "wuhuang" and "Five White" dishes during the Dragon Boat Festival can clear away heat and reduce fire, strengthen the spleen and regulate the stomach. Of course, it is also an important custom to eat zongzi and race dragon boats in order to commemorate the cultural significance and to vote for Qu Yuan of Miluo River!
Why eat wuhuang on Dragon Boat Festival? This is because realgar is a traditional Chinese medicine, and realgar wine with realgar powder and calamus root chips has the effect of detoxification and sterilization. There is a proverb in Jiangnan: "On May 5th, realgar shochu celebrated the Dragon Boat Festival". There is also a folk saying that "drinking realgar wine will make all diseases go away". Yellow croaker, Monopterus albus, salted egg yolk and cucumber are the seasonal foods during the Dragon Boat Festival.