During the Qingming Festival, people prepare grass cakes (called Aiban by the Hakka people) for worship; during the Dragon Boat Festival, people insert mugwort and banyan leaves on their doors to ward off disasters, and wear sachets filled with dried mugwort leaves on their bodies; and after participating in sacrificial activities in the seventh month of the lunar calendar, people also use mugwort to cleanse themselves. Mugwort can often be seen in traditional scenes in Taiwan.
Mugwort is not only used by the Hokkien people, but also by indigenous peoples. The most common use is to make it into dishes on the table. The Paiwan people also use the juice of mugwort to apply to affected areas.
Mugwort has a positive yang nature, making it suitable for cleansing the body and removing impurities, helping us achieve energy purification, ensuring safety, and attracting good fortune. As a medicinal herb, it has uses such as repelling mosquitoes, providing antibacterial and anti-inflammatory benefits, regulating menstruation and stopping bleeding, stabilizing pregnancy, and dispelling dampness and cold.
This article will introduce you to the various uses and origins of mugwort, and learn about this plant that is closely related to the lives of Taiwanese people!
Edible - It is a medicinal herb and a unique vanilla spice
Not only is mugwort used as medicine, but as a herbal spice, its slightly bitter, sweet, and astringent grassy flavor enhances the texture and taste of food.
▍Cao Zai Guo
The most common mugwort you eat probably comes from "Cao Zai Kueh," which the Hakka people call "Ai Ban." You might have seen Cao Zai Kueh before, but didn't know the grass was mugwort! (It's usually mugwort or sagebrush, with sagebrush making the Cao Zai Kueh lighter in color.)
Caozaiguo (Cao Zai Guo) is primarily popular in Taiwan and southern Fujian, China. Originally a staple food during the Cold Food Festival, it later became a sacrificial offering during the Qingming Festival and the Zhongyuan Festival. Today, it's a common rice snack. Fillings typically include shredded radish, preserved radish, mung bean paste, red bean paste, and more, with both savory and sweet options available.
▍Home cooking
Mugwort is very suitable for cooking. Herbal tea, sweet soup, chicken soup, braised eggs, fried eggs, pancakes, and steamed buns are all common dishes that use mugwort. Although mugwort has coarse fibers, blanching can solve this problem.
Exorcising evil spirits and avoiding disasters : It turns out that the custom of exorcism originally had nothing to do with ghosts, gods, or beliefs.
"Today is the Dragon Boat Festival. Cattail and mugwort are worn on the door, and tiger amulets are tied on the arm."
This passage is from "Dream of the Red Chamber" and describes the scene of inserting green on the door and wearing tiger-shaped talismans and sachets during the Dragon Boat Festival.
Inserting green leaves and wearing sachets during the Dragon Boat Festival are long-standing Taiwanese customs, but do you know the origins of these customs?
▍Planting greens to avoid disasters: mugwort, lemongrass, and banyan branches
Regarding the origin of the practice of planting green leaves to ward off disasters, a story circulating in Taiwan relates to the Huang Chao Rebellion...
During the Dragon Boat Festival of the fifth month of the Tang Dynasty, Huang Chao's rebellion erupted. On his way to the next village with his army, Huang Chao encountered a woman holding her older child in one hand and her younger child in the other. Puzzled by their unusual behavior, Huang Chao approached to question her. The woman replied, "The younger child is my biological child, and the older child is my brother and his wife's. After years of war, my brother and his wife were killed by bandits, leaving behind this child, their only blood. I hold him close to my chest and protect him with even greater care."
Moved by the woman's selflessness, Huang Chao asked her to hang a plant on her door as a sign, warning his men not to kill those who had the plant. The woman then spread the news to the entire village, and the villagers followed suit, hanging plants. Because the army couldn't identify the woman's home, the entire village was spared a massacre. Thus, the tradition of hanging green plants to ward off disasters has been passed down to this day.
Image source: The Epoch Times
In Taiwan, the Dragon Boat Festival usually involves hanging mugwort, lemongrass and banyan leaves. Since calamus mainly grows in temperate regions, hanging calamus is a Chinese custom.
▍Sachets: From pest control to safety, they also ward off evil spirits
The Dragon Boat Festival typically marks the end of the plum rain season, characterized by hot, humid weather and unpredictable weather, which can easily breed disease-carrying mosquitoes and cause colds. From a Traditional Chinese Medicine perspective, pathogenic factors such as heat, dampness, dryness, and heat are collectively referred to as "evil," with colds being referred to as wind evil. Ancient people would fill small cloth bags with insect repellent herbs like mugwort and wear them for both insect repellency and aesthetic appeal. While medical advances have reduced the reliance on sachets to ward off disease, mugwort's inherent yang properties, known in folk tradition as a cleansing and detoxifying agent, have led to sachets becoming amulets meant to bring good fortune and safety.
Image source: Folk Customs
Tiger cub incense (hóo-á-hiunn) is a common incense pouch. In folklore, the tiger is a mythical beast that wards off evil. However, due to the complex production process, the art of handmade tiger cub incense has gradually been lost.