In ancient times, the 5th lunar month was traditionally called “the poisonous month” or “the evil month”, with the 5th day being the most unlucky day. It was believed that women must avoid giving birth on this day. Later, children less than one year old would be sent to their maternal grandmothers’ homes to “to escape the ‘wu’” (‘wu’ means “the 5th”).
As a result, many customs of exorcising evil spirits and dispelling illnesses were developed. In addition to eating the Five Yellows (soy bean sprouts, yellow croakers, rice field eels, cucumbers and realgar wine) and hung five plants of bliss (calamus, Ay Tsao, bulbs of garlic, pomegranate flowers and Chinese Ixora), there are also various other symbolic customs.
In some places, red paper-cuts in the shapes of a centipede, a scorpion, a house lizard, a spider and a snake, which are called the “five poisons”, are posted indoors as a means to repel evils. Children wear tiger-head caps and coats and trousers with the pattern of the “five poisons” and carry scented sachets to ward off evils. Velvet threads in five colors (red, yellow, blue, white and black) fastened around a child’s neck, wrists and ankles are called the “long-life threads” and the five-colored threads symbolize the five-colored dragon, which is thought to overpower ghosts and monsters.