Why put mugwort leaves at the door?

During holidays, different places have some customs. For example, in the southern region of our country, during the Dragon Boat Festival, many people will pick some mugwort and hang it on the door. It is said that this can prevent plague. In fact, everyone knows that mugwort does have many therapeutic effects, but putting mugwort on the door is just a custom and there is no real scientific reason. Moreover, the reasons for hanging mugwort on the door are different in each place.

Why put mugwort leaves at the door?

1. What does it mean to hang mugwort on the door?

In the minds of the ancients, the Dragon Boat Festival was a poisonous and evil day, and this idea has been passed down in folk beliefs, which is why there are all kinds of customs for praying for peace and warding off disasters. In fact, this is because the weather is hot and dry in summer, people are prone to illness and plagues are easy to spread; plus snakes and insects breed and can easily bite people, so we have to be very careful, which leads to this habit. Various festival customs, such as collecting herbs, sprinkling walls, doors and windows with realgar wine, and drinking cattail wine, may seem superstitious, but they are actually hygienic activities that are beneficial to health. The Dragon Boat Festival can actually be regarded as a traditional medicine and health festival, a festival in which the people fight against diseases and poisonous insects. Today these hygienic customs should still be developed, promoted and passed on.

2. What is the function of placing wormwood at the door?

Mugwort has an insect repellent effect, and another special effect is that it can drive away evil spirits. Mugwort usually grows in shady places, similar to willow trees. On the Dragon Boat Festival, the five poisonous creatures awaken and come out to harm people. On this day, Zhong Kui will come out to catch ghosts. Legend has it that there was a vicious ghost who transformed into a scorpion, centipede, etc. and harmed people everywhere. Zhong Kui became furious when he heard this and immediately chased after the evil ghost with the demon-subduing fan. But the evil ghost was so powerful that Zhong Kui could not catch it all. The evil ghost turned into countless scorpions, centipedes, snakes and other poisonous insects. Later, Zhong Kui found out that the evil ghost was strangled to death with mugwort in the river! When Zhong Kui found out the reason, he immediately ordered every household to hang mugwort in front of their doors.

3. How to hang mugwort during the Dragon Boat Festival

There are reasons for hanging mugwort, calamus, pomegranate and garlic at the door during the Dragon Boat Festival. Usually, mugwort, banyan and calamus are tied into a bundle with red paper and then inserted or hung on the door. Because calamus is the first of the five auspicious plants in the sky, it symbolizes a sword that can ward off evil. Because its growing season and appearance are considered to be sensitive to the "hundred yin energy", its leaves are sword-shaped, and inserting them at the door can ward off evil.

Therefore, the alchemists called it "water sword", and later customs extended it to "cattail sword", which can kill all kinds of evil. In the Qing Dynasty, Gu Tieqing recorded in "Qing Jia Lu" that "cut cattails into swords, cut reeds into whips, and add peach stems and garlic to them, and hang them on the bedside, all to ward off evil spirits." However, in the "Fengtuzhi" of the Jin Dynasty, it is recorded that "using mugwort to make a tiger shape, or cutting ribbons into a small tiger, and sticking mugwort leaves on it, the women competed to cut it. Later, calamus was added, or made into a human shape, or into a sword shape, called calamus sword, to drive away evil spirits and ghosts."