Dragon Boat Festival customs related to flowers and plants

The fifth day of the fifth month of the lunar calendar is a traditional folk festival in my country-the Dragon Boat Festival, commonly known as the Duanyang Festival. Interestingly, among the colorful Dragon Boat Festival customs, some of them are related to flowers and plants: Fighting grass: a game popular during the Dragon Boat Festival in the old days. On this day, people went to the suburbs for outing, collecting various flowers and plants to compete for the resilience and strangeness of the grass, or to identify the names of the flowers and plants. "Jingchu Chronicle of the Year" records: "There is no sun in May, and the four people step on hundreds of grass together, and there is a drama of fighting grass."

Hairpin and pomegranate flowers: During the Dragon Boat Festival, women wear pomegranate flowers on their temples as ornaments. "Scenery of the Imperial Capital" says: "On May 5th, every family decorated their little girl with pomegranate flowers on the hairpin." The "Annals of Daxing County" of the Qing Dynasty records: "It is the fifth day of the fifth month) Girls need to be equipped with talismans and hairpin and willow flowers."

Matching sachets: During the Dragon Boat Festival, girls should carefully embroider exquisitely carved fragrant powder bags or sachets containing highly fragrant medicinal plants such as angelica root, cloves, etc., used for cleaning and avoiding evil spirits. The girls wear sachets on their dresses, which is refreshing and refreshing.

Shooting willows: It is a custom to stay in the Liao Dynasty during the Dragon Boat Festival. During the Dragon Boat Festival, wicker trees are inserted into the soil and a handkerchief is tied on them. A "guide" leads the horses first. Other military personnel set out with them. When they arrive at a place, when they hear the singing of gold and drums, they each draw their bows and shoot willows. Those who shoot off the willow branches will be rewarded, and those who fail will be punished.

White mugwort: White mugwort, commonly known as mugwort, is a perennial herb in the Compositae. On the Dragon Boat Festival, people pick mugwort at their homes, and use mugwort root to hang mugwort tiger shaped like a tiger in the center of the lintel to ward off evil spirits. The book "Mountain Journey and Sikao" in the Ming Dynasty records: "During the Dragon Boat Festival, mugwort is used to form a tiger, or cut the ribbon to form a tiger, and stick mugwort leaves to wear it."

Acorus hanging: Acorus is a perennial herb of the Araceae family. It is more than 30 centimeters high. It grows on rocky rocks in the mountains. It contains volatile glycerol, which has refreshing, opening and sterilizing effects. During the Dragon Boat Festival, some people make calamus into sword-shaped cattail swords and hang them under the eaves, and some use calamus to boil water for a bath to eliminate the virus. To this day, many areas in southern my country still have the custom of picking calamus during the Dragon Boat Festival.