"Holding Aiqi in your hand is a blessing, and hanging a sword under the door is a thousand evils." On the Dragon Boat Festival, almost every household hangs green Acorus calamus at the gate.
Hanging wormwood and calamus on Dragon Boat Festival seems to be an ancient custom handed down by ancestors. It is said that it can repel mosquitoes and evil spirits. But in fact, few people can tell the origin and real function of this custom.
For example, Zhejiang people usually tie wormwood and calamus into a bundle with red paper on the Dragon Boat Festival, and then insert them on the lintel. In Xianlinyuan Community, the reporter randomly visited several residential buildings and found that most families would hang a handful of wormwood tied with red rope in front of their doors. Some families are fixed with tape, some are hung upside down with ropes, and there is a faint fragrance in the corridor.
Folklore expert: Acorus calamus hung before the Dragon Boat Festival has been passed down for thousands of years.
There is a folk proverb that says, "Willows are inserted in Qingming Festival and Ai is inserted in Dragon Boat Festival". On the Dragon Boat Festival, people regard wormwood and calamus as one of the important contents of the Dragon Boat Festival. Every family sweeps the court, puts calamus and moxa sticks between their eyebrows and hangs them in the class.
How did wormwood and calamus come from, and how did they appear in the custom of Dragon Boat Festival?
Folklore experts say that the custom of hanging wormwood and calamus has been passed down for thousands of years.
"wormwood has the effect of health care, and calamus is like a sword, which has been handed down from ancient times to ward off evil spirits." Chen said that the fifth month of the lunar calendar, that is, the Dragon Boat Festival, is called "Poisonous May", so people will hang wormwood and calamus and drink realgar wine to drive away poisonous insects and poisonous gases.
It is understood that as early as the Jin Dynasty, people began to hang wormwood on their doors. In the Northern and Southern Dynasties, Artemisia argyi developed into a Artemisia argyi people.
Zong Yi's "The Chronicle of Jingchu" said: "On May 5, four people stepped on a hundred herbs, and there was a scene of a hundred herbs fighting ... hanging on the door to drive away the poisonous gas." Tie the mugwort collected in the field into a human shape and hang it on the door. This is a long-standing custom of hanging "Ai Ren". The purpose of binding Artemisia argyi into Ai people is to improve the function of Artemisia argyi to ward off evil spirits.
Acorus calamus can even be used to rescue comatose patients.
In the folk, Acorus calamus is often hung to repel mosquitoes. Besides repelling mosquitoes, what's the function?
Qian, director of the pharmacy department of Zhejiang Provincial Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine, told Zhejiang Online reporter that Acorus calamus has a unique fragrance and has the effect of clearing the brain and calming the nerves.
"There are also wormwood calamus used to rescue comatose patients in clinic, which can sometimes play a certain role."
Folium Artemisiae Argyi is a kind of hot plant, which is used as medicine by Chinese medicine, and has the functions of regulating qi and blood, warming uterus and eliminating cold and dampness. Acorus calamus is a temperate plant of Araceae, which has the effects of resolving phlegm, inducing resuscitation, eliminating dampness, invigorating stomach, killing insects and relieving itching.
"You can boil the leaves of Acorus calamus in water. When it is cold, you can put water on your body, which has a bactericidal effect."
Qian told reporters that among the people, Acorus calamus is most commonly used to repel mosquitoes because it emits a smell that mosquitoes don't like very much. "In rural areas, the wormwood is dried and lit, and the lit smoke can repel insects."