Why do you wear colored ropes on the Dragon Boat Festival?
As early as the Eastern Han Dynasty, it was recorded in Ying Shao's "The Romance of Customs" that tying colored ropes on his arms could avoid soldiers and ghosts and prevent diseases and plagues. In the Book of Continued Han Dynasty and the Book of Later Han Dynasty, Zhu Suo and five-color seals were used as door decorations on the day of 3 pm, which was considered as a means to resist evil spirits.
The five colors of the five-color silk represent the five elements. In the Han Dynasty, they believed in the theory of five elements of yin and yang, and the five colors represented five directions, which had the mysterious function of exorcising evil spirits and welcoming good luck. Blue is wood, representing the East, red is fire, representing the South, yellow is earth, representing the Central Committee, white is gold, representing the West, and black is water, representing the North. Animals are symbols, with Qinglong in the east, Suzaku in the south, White Tiger in the west, Xuanwu (tortoise and snake) in the north and Huanglong in the middle, all of which are spiritual objects.
The symbolic significance of five-color silk to ward off evil spirits and plagues is far more obvious than the actual function, because there is no specific explanation why these colors can eliminate disasters and diseases. It can be seen that this is a magical thing with magic and symbolic significance in folk beliefs, which is obviously different from the medical functions used by mugwort, calamus and realgar in festivals, purely for the needs of folk beliefs and good luck.
Multicolored threads are worn by men with their left hands and women with their right hands. They can be tied around their necks or ankles. Another person said that if a child is less than one year old, he will only wear red thread.
Although it is agreed in folklore that the colored rope should be taken off and thrown into the rain in the first rain of the Dragon Boat Festival, which symbolizes staying away from evil, trouble, disease and sadness, I hope that you will not throw it anywhere, but it is better to throw it in a secluded place, so as not to affect the environment and increase the workload of sanitation workers.
In addition to the custom of wearing colored ropes, there are peppers and tiger's head shoes on the Dragon Boat Festival. Children write the word "Wang" on their heads to stop the children from making trouble, also to drive away disasters and plagues.