Why should the Dragon Boat Festival "drive away the five poisons"?

Why should the Dragon Boat Festival "drive away the five poisons"?

Dragon Boat Festival is the most important traditional festival in summer. There were many folk activities that day, besides rowing dragon boats and making zongzi in memory of the patriotic poet Qu Yuan, there were also folk activities such as inserting wormwood leaves and calamus, hanging Zhong Kui statues, wearing sachets and drinking realgar wine to ward off evil spirits and avoid epidemics.

In addition, there is a special traditional custom of the Dragon Boat Festival, which is to "drive away the five poisons". The five poisons refer to the five most poisonous animals in the minds of the ancients, generally referring to snakes, scorpions, centipedes, toads, geckos and other animals. But gecko is not poison, so there is also a saying that gecko changes spider.

Five Poisons Map (network picture)

Then, why should the Dragon Boat Festival "drive away the five poisons"?

Every year in May of the solar calendar, at the turn of spring and summer, the grass grows and the weather is getting hotter. When the rainy season is wet and the weather is heavy, the gas of boils suddenly increases, the plague begins to spread, and snakes, scorpions, centipedes and other poisons growing in wet and dark environments become active. This kind of climate is easy to make people feel uncomfortable, and it is also easy to breed all kinds of pathogenic bacteria and make people sick.

Therefore, the ancients thought that May was an "evil month" and a "poisonous month", such as Liang Zonggu's "Old Things in Jingchu?" May "contains:" May, commonly known as evil month, is forbidden. Avoid exposing beds and recommending seats, and avoid building houses. " "Taiping Yu Lanqing? Volume 22 quotes Dong Xun's custom in Han Dynasty, saying, "May is commonly called evil month. Vulgarians have more than six fasts. "

So May is not only a poisonous month, but also the fifth day is considered as the worst month. Legend has it that evil spirits were in power on May 5th, and five poisons appeared at the same time, so there were many taboos. In addition to avoiding "exposing the bed and recommending seats to build a house", there is even a proverb "Don't raise children born in May", that is, don't raise them.

According to historical records? The Biography of Meng Changjun said that Meng Changjun, who is famous for raising wise men, was born on May 5th. His father Tian Ying told his mother not to raise him, because it was said at that time that a child born in May would hurt his father and mother when he grew up.

Wang Zhene, a famous Eastern Jin Dynasty star, was also born on May 5th, which was considered as an unlucky day. His family originally wanted to inherit others, but his grandfather left him and named him Zhenxie to curb bad luck. In addition, Evonne of Song Huizong was born on May 5th, and was put in foster care outside the palace since childhood.

It can be seen that as early as the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, May was regarded as an evil month, the fifth day was an unlucky day in the evil month, and May was in the hot and humid summer season, so there is a folk proverb: "Dragon Boat Festival, the weather is hot, the five poisons wake up, and there is no peace." Therefore, during the Dragon Boat Festival, the five poisons linger indoors, affecting people's health and daily life. Therefore, measures should be taken to avoid and drive away the poison in order to drive away the disease.

According to "Youyang Miscellaneous Language" in the Tang Dynasty? Volume 1 records the custom of hanging a "five-hour map" in the Tang Dynasty, that is, drawing snakes, scorpions, centipedes, toads and lizards on paper, also known as "five poison symbols". According to legend, these five poisons must coexist at the same time, so as not to attack each other and to be peaceful. So hanging a five-hour chart can prevent poisonous insects from causing trouble.

In the folk, people usually put up a map of the five poisons in the house, draw the five poisons on red paper, and then stab them to death with five needles, indicating that the five poisons have been stabbed to death and can no longer harm people.

In some places, images of snakes, scorpions, centipedes, toads and geckos cut in red letters are pasted on doors, walls, windows and kang at home, which is called "cutting five poisons". There is also the custom of eating five-poison cakes, that is, putting a seal engraved with the image of five-poison animals on the cakes. There are five kinds of cakes with different colors, which means that if you eat the five poisons, you won't poison people again.

There is also a folk custom of drawing the word "Wang" on children's foreheads with realgar. One is to drive away poisonous insects, and the other is to kill evil with tigers (the word "king" is like a tiger's forehead, and the tiger is the king of all animals, instead). In some places, children should be given a "five-poison pocket" embroidered with five poisons, which means fighting poison with poison, expelling five poisons and protecting health.

Therefore, the Dragon Boat Festival is not only a sacrifice and commemoration, but also an important activity to drive away the five poisons and prevent the plague.