Wearing Fragrant Bag, fragrant bag is also called fragrant pocket, fragrant sack, fragrant purse, etc. It can be woven through colored threads, or sewn up with cloth scraps, into which spices are put (herbs including angelica, hemlock parsley, skullcap, lysimachia sikokiana, Thai ginger, nard, etc.) In General Records of Seasonal Practice composed by Chen Shiliang, there is a quotation from Assorted Records of Seasonal Practice, “On Dragon Boat Festival, people use colored cloth and threads to make pockets, penetrated by colored threads and formed into flower shapes.” Another ornament called Bangfenling is also described, “On Dragon Boat Festival, fill oyster powder into pockets, and string up like prayer beads. This is worn by babies to absorb sweat.” These carry-on bags experienced a lot in their fillings, from sweat absorption oyster powder, talisman to avoid evil, copper coins, realgar powder to drive away insects, and finally to fragrant spices. The processing is more and more delicate, and became a special handicraft for Dragon Boat Festival.
There are a lot contents for wearing fragrant bags. In order to keep off diseases and stay healthy, elderly people usually prefer to wear bags with the patterns of plum flower, chrysanthemum, peach, apple, lotus, baby riding fish, baby carrying rooster, double lotus flower, etc. The above patterns symbolize singing bird, sweet flower, good fortune and success, love between husband and wife, harmonious family. Meanwhile, children prefer those of birds and beasts, such as tiger, leopard, monkey, rooster, rabbit, etc. There are also rich meanings for young people to wear fragrant bags, for example, girls in love would make one or two these bags before Dragon Boat Festival to present them to her beloved. While the young man, who is wearing the bag given by his girlfriend, would raise comments from people around, praising that his girlfriend is clever and deft.
Prayer and Dispelling Five Poisonous Creatures
As discussed above, ancient Chinese believed that Duanwu was a vicious and sinister day, and this belief had been passed down from generation to generation, and accordingly appeared the customs to pray against disaster and disease, and to seek security. As a matter of fact, when Duanwu comes, it is dry and hot, so people would easily catch diseases, and plague would often burst out. Furthermore, poisonous insects become much active and often bite people. In this case, people have to be very careful during this period, so relevant customs formed. Some practices in this time, for instance collecting herbs, spraying realgar wine onto wall, door, and window, drinking herbal wine, etc., they may be somewhat superstitious, but on the other hand they are all activities helpful to health. In essence, Dragon Boat Festival is really a traditional medical and health care festival, a festival for people to fight against diseases and poisonous insects. Even day, all these customs beneficial to health should be carried on and further developed.
Health Customs on Dragon Boat Festival
A. Collecting Herbs. This is one of the oldest customs during Dragon Boat Festival. Xiaxiaozheng states, “Today is to accumulate medicine to dispel poisonous gases.” In volume 22 of General Records of Seasonal Customs, there is a quotation from Jingchu Seasonal Records, “On May 5, people raced to collect medicine for curing different diseases in the future.” In Assorted Records of Qiminyaoshu of Latter Wei dynasty, there are records to catch frogs for making medicine. Later, in many places there is the custom to catch frogs on Dragon Boat Festival, and people believe the medicine from frogs is effective to eliminate internal hotness and prevent them from getting boils. There is another custom to put ink stick into the frog mouth on May 5, then hang it up to dry to make frog ink stick. This ink stick is very efficacious to get rid of abscesses after it is smeared on skin. This custom originated from the legend in Han dynasty that frogs can be used to dispel diseases. In Jianli county Hubei province, there is also the custom to collect various herbs on Dragon Boat Festival. During this period, the stems and leaves of herbs are mature, so its efficacy is evident, thus the custom to collect herbs on this day.
(Source: bjchinese.bjedu.cn)
