Why do people make sachets on the Dragon Boat Festival?

The sachet of the Dragon Boat Festival is said to ward off evil spirits and is said to be auspicious. Legend has it that Qu Yuan was thrown into the river in summer and mosquitoes flew everywhere. People were afraid that Qu Yuan's body would be bitten, so they lit it with wormwood to smoke insects, and then someone built righteousness. Why not wrap sandalwood with cloth? Later, people sewed sachets with needle and thread, tied them with cloth ropes and hung them around their necks. Everyone is tied up, and mosquitoes and dirty things are afraid to get close. According to legend, making sachets on the Dragon Boat Festival has become a traditional custom in China.

On the fifth day of the fifth lunar month, every household will celebrate the Dragon Boat Festival. Among all the customs of the Dragon Boat Festival, the most static beauty and warmth are the making and wearing of sachets. In the past, due to the underdeveloped medicine, people ground sterilized realgar, wormwood and calamus into powder, wrapped them in cloth and put them on their chests to use their fragrance to prevent insects and bacteria from summering. This is the origin of sachets.

Extended data

The sachet has been described in some chapters of The Book of Songs, indicating that the sachet existed as early as about 3000 years ago. The Book of Rites says, "Five choices are embroidery." The sachet is embroidered with blue, red, yellow, white and black silk threads, which are colorful and naturally have aesthetic functions of decorating clothes and nourishing emotions. Moreover, because it is filled with special Chinese herbal medicines, it also has the effects of exorcism, sterilization and refreshing. The Book of Rites stipulates that underage men and women must wear sachets to worship their parents sooner or later, which shows that sachets also have ceremonial functions.

During the Warring States period, even during the Qin, Han and Jin Dynasties, both men and women wore sachets, which gradually became special products for women and children after Jin Dynasty. In the Song Dynasty, officials and historians began to wear sachets in robes, and the role of etiquette became more and more prominent.

In the Qing Dynasty, sachets became a good gift, especially for lovers. In modern times, sachet is an effective carrier of traditional culture, which plays an irreplaceable role in interpersonal communication, beautifying the environment, cultivating sentiment and expressing feelings. Send a sachet, convey a friendship, bring a good mood and express a good wish, which contains rich cultural connotation and spiritual orientation.