Why do we wear colorful ropes during the Dragon Boat Festival? The meaning and wearing method of the colorful ropes during the Dragon Boat Festival

Why do we bring colorful ropes during the Dragon Boat Festival? In addition to eating rice dumplings and dragon boat racing, there is also a folk custom of wearing colorful threads during the Dragon Boat Festival. Next, let’s take a look at the relevant content about the Dragon Boat Festival’s colorful rope.

Why do we wear colorful ropes during the Dragon Boat Festival?

Five-colored rope drives away evil spirits and ensures safety

In ancient China, five colors were worshiped and considered auspicious, symbolizing praying for good fortune and warding off evil. Children wearing colorful ropes is an important custom of the Dragon Boat Festival. During the Dragon Boat Festival, every household hangs five-colored silk ropes on the lintels to ward off bad luck. The Dragon Boat Festival is also known as "Children's Day". Wearing colorful ropes on this "poisonous day" can protect against evil spirits, eliminate diseases and strengthen the body. Precisely because of its important significance, the custom of wearing colorful threads during the Dragon Boat Festival continues to this day.

The five-colored rope is also called the longevity rope

In fact, the five-colored rope has another particularly nice name. In ancient times, the five-colored rope was also called the longevity thread. It is made of thick red, green, yellow, white and black silk threads twisted into a colorful rope and tied around a girl's arm or neck. It is called the longevity thread or the life-extending thread. The Ming Dynasty poet Yu Youding's poem "Song of the Fifth Day in the Imperial Capital" said "Tying out five threads can prolong one's life", which refers to this custom. Han Dynasty Ying Shao's "Customs and Customs" records: "On May 5th, people tie five-colored silk on their arms, which is called the long life thread." Later generations also called it "the life-extending thread" or "the five-color thread."

The evolution of colorful rope

The sachet, commonly known as the scented cloth bag, is also a must-wear item for people during the Dragon Boat Festival. The custom of wearing sachets has gradually evolved from wearing colorful threads during the Dragon Boat Festival. The sachet is made of cloth of various colors and filled with spice powder made of cloves, vanilla, angelica, sweet osmanthus, atractylodes and realgar. It is worn on children with colorful threads as ropes. Its function is to ward off diseases and evil spirits. Nowadays, incense bags come in a wide variety of shapes, reflecting the characteristics of the times.