Baicao Bath is a tradition of the Dragon Boat Festival in Jiahe County. On the eve of the Dragon Boat Festival every year, the local people will boil the wormwood, bitter plum leaves, heartleaf houttuynia herbs, etc. in a large pot for several hours until the medicine juice is rich, and then pour them into a large basin after cooling them slightly, where people can start bathing. It can prevent people, especially children from contracting skin diseases and developing heat rash within the next year.

 

Besides, according to the Chinese medicine pharmacological research, wormwood has strong disinfection and sterilization functions, which can help prevent various infectious diseases in summer. In Jiahe County, it is not only used for bathing, but it is also a custom to eat wormwood Ciba on the Dragon Boat Festival.

 

At first, the washed fresh wormwood leaves are boiled for 15 minutes or so, and then rinsed with clean water several times. Next, they need soaking for two days to remove the bitterness. After that, the dried leaves are chopped and kneaded with the prepared glutinous rice flour into balls, which are called Ciba. Finally, the balls are steamed in a pot for about 10 minutes. Sometimes, balls of Ciba will be fried in oil for a longer storage time, which will be steamed in a pot before served. Ciba with wormwood leaves tastes soft as well as delicious, and is popular in Jiahe County.

 

 

In addition, the people in Jiahe County also drink realgar wine on the Dragon Boat Festival. In ancient times, it’s believed that realgar and realgar wine could avoid ghosts and hundreds of poisons. In the pre-Qin times, May was considered a poisonous month, and the fifth day was considered an evil day. On the day, evil and poison emerged together, causing harm to the human beings. And people drank realgar wine to avoid being hurt by insects and snakes, and some realgar wine was sprinkled inside and outside the house, and applied on the children’s foreheads, ears and noses to drive away poisonous creatures, diseases and disasters.

 

Now, Jiahe’s rice wine brewed from closed barrel (yellow rice wine) is similar to realgar wine in color and easy to drink, so every family will prepare the rice wine to drink on the Dragon Boat Festival.

 

It is a custom in most parts of China to make Zongzi on the Dragon Boat Festival. However, except in Puman Township and Xinglang Town, where people usually make Zongzi on the Dragon Boat Festival, people in Jiahe County seldom do so. It’s said that in ancient times, the Dragon Boat Festival was the beginning of a year, and people didn’t have enough food to make Zongzi until the Mid-Autumn Festival, a harvest time of a year. Therefore, Zongzi has become a delicacy of the Mid-Autumn Festival in Jiahe County, which is different from the customs of other places at the Dragon Boat Festival.

 

What’s more, in Puman Township, Jiahe County, married women are used to paying visits to their parents on the eve of the Dragon Boat Festival with gifts like Ciba, eggs and geese to show respect for their family. The custom started from the Northern Song Dynasty and continues to the present. 

 

Jiahe County was the granary of the Qin’s army during the Qin Dynasty. In order to protect grains, a large number of troops were stationed in the granary. The stationed soldiers coming from all over the country brought their customs to Jiahe, which have evolved into the unique customs of Jiahe.