What festival is it to drink realgar wine? The origin of drinking realgar wine

Realgar wine is a kind of wine in traditional festivals in China, which is said to drive away pests. So some festivals have the custom of drinking realgar wine. So, what festival is it to drink realgar wine? How to drink realgar wine?

What festival is it to drink realgar wine?

Drinking realgar wine is one of the customs of Dragon Boat Festival. Realgar wine is used to repel insects and remove five poisons. Children can be cured by applying it to the head, forehead, ears, nose, hands and feet, and spreading it between walls.

The story of "Legend of the White Snake" circulated by the Han people is to cure the snake's poison with realgar wine, and now the white snake is in its original form. This custom is very popular among people in the Yangtze River valley.

What is realgar wine?

Realgar wine is white wine or yellow wine brewed from ground realgar, and it is a drink of Dragon Boat Festival, a traditional festival in China.

Realgar wine needs to be dried, and some are dried from the first day of May to the fifth day of May. Realgar, as a traditional Chinese medicine, can be used as an antidote and insecticide. Therefore, the ancients believed that realgar could inhibit snakes, scorpions and other pests. "Good can kill all poisons, eliminate all evils and cure all poisons. When a man turns his horse upside down, the tiger and the wolf crouch in the mountains, and all kinds of poisons enter the Sichuan water to avoid it. " Although realgar wine contains arsenic compounds, arsenic is the main component of arsenic, but a small amount of arsenic is beneficial to the body.

The origin of drinking realgar wine

Legend has it that after Qu Yuan threw himself into the river, people in Qu Yuan's hometown threw zongzi and salted eggs into the river to prevent the dragon from eating Qu Yuan's body. An old doctor brought an altar of realgar wine and poured it into the river, saying that it could save the dragon and protect Qu Yuan. After a while, a dragon really floated on the water. So, people pulled the dragon ashore, lacing and peeling it, then wrapped the dragon tendon around the children's wrists and necks, and then wiped their seven orifices with realgar wine, thinking that this would protect the children from insects and snakes. It is said that this is the origin of drinking realgar wine on Dragon Boat Festival. Up to now, many places in China have the habit of drinking realgar wine.