Dragon Boat Festival customs
Repelling insects and avoiding epidemics: Folk songs say: "Dragon Boat Festival, the weather is hot, five wakes up, and restless." The Dragon Boat Festival is in early summer, the weather is hot, rainy and humid, mosquitoes Breeding is the season of high incidence of infectious diseases. Therefore, many special customs of exorcising evil spirits, disinfecting and avoiding epidemics have been spread among the people.
Traditional customs: The midsummer Dragon Boat Festival has strong yang energy, and all things are prosperous at this time. It is the day of the year when herbs have the strongest medicinal properties. The herbs collected on the Dragon Boat Festival are the most effective and effective in curing diseases and preventing epidemics. Many Dragon Boat Festival customs passed down since ancient times include the content of warding off evil spirits, dispelling diseases and preventing epidemics, such as hanging mugwort, making sachets to ward off evil spirits, washing herbal water, and fumigating atractylodes to dispel diseases and prevent epidemics.
Sachet custom: Qu Yuan's "Li Sao" wrote: "Hu Jiangli and Pi Zhixi are admired by Ren Qiulan." Jiangli, Zhi, and Qiulan all refer to vanilla. It is a practice that has been continued from ancient times to put fragrant herbs into a bag to wear. Put the herbs into the bag, get its fragrance, and wear it on the body, hoping that the next year will be safe and smooth.
Function of the sachet: Tie the sachet around your waist, or under your elbows, or hide it in your sleeves. The aroma will be strong and light when you move your hands and feet. This gentle fragrance will make people miss you. Reluctant to give up. Hanging sachets on the Dragon Boat Festival are not only used to incense your body and clothes, but also have a certain repellent effect.
"Prescription for Preventing Welfare": Wu Shangxian's "Li Yu Parallel Essays" of the Qing Dynasty recorded that the "prescription for preventing wei" includes one or two coins of rhubarb, atractylodes, sandalwood, three nai, realgar, cinnabar, and nard. One or two each, eight qian each of Sichuan pepper, Guanzhong, dragon bone, and tiger bone, six qian each of Gepu and Angelica dahurica, five qian of cinnamon, four qian each of Liao Xixin, Wu Rongying, clove, and agarwood. Grind into powder and wrap in silk. Sheng Pei's body.
Fragrance formula: Like the formula of the sachet used by the ancients during the Dragon Boat Festival, the fragrant medicine selected is mainly used to ward off evil spirits, eliminate dirt, and repel insects.
The fragrant decoction is used. Custom: As early as the pre-Qin period, the ancients began to use fragrant plants to boil water for bathing. Qu Yuan's "Nine Songs": "The orchid soup is full of fragrance, and the flowers are like clothes." Song Yu's "Ode to the Goddess": "Mu Lanze, "Hanruofang" bathing with herbal decoction can avoid filth and exorcise evil spirits, make people secrete refreshing fragrance and moisturize the skin. It is a kind of health and epidemic prevention in ancient times.
Fragrant soup effect: Bathing with fragrant soup can make people feel better. People's body and mind are pure, and relieving the depression in the body can not only provide sensory enjoyment, but also relax the spirit. After bathing, the mind and body will be particularly relaxed and happy.
Lumination custom: In addition to hanging sachets and bathing during the Dragon Boat Festival. Fragrant soup, the ancients also used spices to smoke clothes. In ancient times, smoked clothes could be made with "single agarwood" - the lotus root silk shirt and willow flower skirt in "White Clothes" of the Yuan Dynasty, which was smoked with agarwood and slow fire. It can also be made with various spices. "Hexiang" - Su Shi's "Ci Yun and Wang Gong" The heavy clothes gradually sigh that the fragrance of the Yamen is less, and the bun is far away and the words are clear at night."
The function of fumigation: the fragrance of the clothes smoked with spices is refreshing. , it not only deodorizes and repels insects, but also removes the odor of sweat.
Ya incense: The "ya incense" mentioned in Su Shi's poem is made from agarwood, sandalwood and other spices. "Chen's Fragrance Book" written by Chen Jing of the Song Dynasty records the formula of "Xunyi Yaxiang": six liang each of raw agarwood and stacked incense, and ten liang each of sandalwood (fried wax tea) raw teeth and saltpeter. Two liang each of raw borneol (grind) and musk (9 liang each), six liang of armor incense (simmered with charcoal ash for two days, washed, then added with wine and honey and dried in the same pot) white honey (double the amount of fragrant jin and cooked), right For powder, grind into the brain and musk deer, mix with honey, burn and smoke as usual.
Wet incense recipe: In ancient times, the incense was divided into "Qianxiang recipe" and "Wet incense recipe". The two types of lavender incense belong to the "wet incense recipe". The spices used in the incense are pounded into powder, then mixed with honey, dried and wetted properly, and put into a smoker to burn the lavender.