What does it mean to insert willow branches before the Dragon Boat Festival?

It is generally believed that "every family pushes the soul."

Lu You, a poet in the Southern Song Dynasty, wrote: "I suddenly saw every family inserting willows, only to know that today is Qingming." The wind of inserting willows in Qingming rose in the Spring and Autumn Period and prevailed in the Tang and Song Dynasties. On that day in Tomb-Sweeping Day, there was a custom of inserting wickers in the gaps between doors and windows in the Central Plains and all over the south. On the other hand, people in Tao Min play with willows during the Dragon Boat Festival. "Willow beating at the Dragon Boat Festival in May, peony at the crossroads" (Tao Minhua).

There is a song that Hehuang sings: "In May, the sun is shining at five ends, and willows are inserted on the shop door" ("December"), which shows that Qinghai Province and Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region (Han area) have the custom of inserting willows on the Dragon Boat Festival. Tang, the inheritor of Longnan Spring, sang: "In May,' Mangzi' and' Summer' are long, and realgar medicinal liquor crosses Duanyang; Every door and window is inserted with a Liu Ai, and there is no disaster and no happiness. "

Explain that all parts of Longnan have to insert willows for the Dragon Boat Festival. When Han people from all over Gannan celebrate the Dragon Boat Festival, "willow branches and mugwort leaves are inserted at the door of every household, and children hang purses and tie colored ropes." Relatives and friends send zongzi, sticky cakes and candied fruit to each other. "(The Origin of Sacred Gannan Cultural Ecology, edited by Xu Jianqun and Heng Kao) Minxian borders Lintan, Zhuoni and Diebu counties in Gannan Prefecture, and the folk customs are very similar.

On the morning of the Dragon Boat Festival, the first thing to do is to break the willow and insert it in the gap between the doors and windows. People without wicker believe in almost other religions. The second is to collect mugwort leaves in the Woods and hang them under the eaves to dry naturally, which can not only moxibustion the disease, but also ignite the fire sickle. Xiao Xue, a poet in Qin 'an, Gansu, has a poem "Boiling fermented grains and folding willows in Tianshui in May", which shows that there is also the custom of inserting willows in doors and windows during the Dragon Boat Festival in Tianshui.