In honor of the great patriotic poet Qu Yuan, the fifth day of the fifth lunar month is designated as the Dragon Boat Festival every year.

Legend has it that after Qu Yuan's death, the people of Chu mourned his death and went to the Miluo River to pay homage to him. People took out rice balls, eggs and other food thrown into the river, to feed the river fish, lobsters and crabs; the old physician also poured into the river, want to anesthetize the river dragon water beasts, in order to preserve the body of Qu Yuan. Later, people with neem (liàn) leaves to rice wrapped up, wrapped around the outside of the colorful silk, slowly evolved into the people's favorite zongzi now. Every year on the fifth day of the fifth month of the lunar calendar, people use dragon boat racing, eat zongzi, drink xionghuang wine and other customs, to celebrate the Dragon Boat Festival.

The Dragon Boat Festival is a time when adults often give small children scented pouches to wear to protect them from evil spirits and plague, but they are actually used to decorate their lapel (jīn).

Scented sachets are silk bags sewn with vermilion sand, andrographis and medicinal herbs, which can be worn on the body to be fragrant (yì). Of course, scented sachets can also be made into different shapes, or knotted into a string, colorful, exquisite (líng lóng) lovely.

Eating Wuhuang

Eating Wuhuang is a Han Chinese folk custom, popular in Jiangnan and other places. In the fifth month of the lunar calendar, people in the south of the Yangtze River call it the "month of the five huangs", because there are five kinds of food with the sound of "yellow" on the market at this time of the year (yellow fish, eel (shàn), cucumber, salted egg yolks and yellow wine). At noon on the Dragon Boat Festival, people in the south of the Yangtze River have a "five-yellow meal" - people mix the five foods with the "yellow" sound together to make a delicious dish, which is particularly interesting.

The theory of Chinese medicine is that the Dragon Boat Festival, which falls on the fifth day of the fifth month of the lunar calendar, is the time of the year when yang is at its peak, and the noon of this day is the time of the day when yang is at its peak. Therefore, eating the "Five Yellow Meal" at this time of the year can help to gather yang energy, inhibit (yì zhì) disease and boost energy.

Hanging (xuán) moxa leaves calamus (chāng pú)

There is a folk proverb (yàn) that says, "insert willow at Qingming, insert moxa at the Dragon Boat Festival". During the Dragon Boat Festival, sticking in moxa and calamus is a very important festival custom. Families would clean their courtyards and put calamus and moxa sticks on the door brows or hang them in the halls. You can also use calamus, mugwort leaves, durian flowers, garlic, dragon boat flowers, etc., made of human or tiger-shaped bag, called "Ai man" "Ai tiger", or made of garlands and ornaments (pèi shì) hanging up.

Ai, also known as Ai, Artemisia absinthium (hāo), its stems and leaves contain volatile aromatic oils, which produce a peculiar aroma that can repel (qū) mosquitoes, flies, insects and ants and can also purify the air.

Calamus, a perennial aquatic herb, also contains volatile aromatic oils in its long, narrow leaves, which are good herbs for refreshing the mind and clearing the orifices (qiào), killing insects and sterilizing the body.

In the Dragon Boat Festival, the custom of inserting moxa and calamus actually has a practical effect, which is to prevent diseases and drive away insects. Therefore, the Dragon Boat Festival can also be said to be a "health festival" that has been passed down from ancient times.