May single five five poison shoes text/Lei Huizhi

"In May, the south wind is blowing, and the wheat yellow shoots are going to play." "The wheat is ripe, and the sun is poisonous." At this time, the weather is getting hotter, the rain is increasing, the plague is easy to rise, and the disease is easy to occur. In particular, the insects began to move in large numbers, foraging around. Scorpions, snakes, geckos, centipedes, and toads, which are called "five poisons" by farmers, are extremely vulnerable, so the folk call May a bad month, and the five days are evil days. At this time, people in the countryside are most worried about insects, especially the "five poisons" to hurt children who do not understand things. In order to solve this problem, the old people made five poisonous shoes for the children in the family, which means to keep the insects, especially these five poisons, away from the children and protect them from harm.

A few days before the may single five, the peasant daughters-in-law who had children under the age of three in their families bought yellow cloth and colorful threads and prepared to make five poisonous shoes for the children. Don't look at just a pair of small shoes that are more than one finger long, it is still quite laborious to do. If you have a clever hand, you can make a pair of hands in a day; if you have a clumsy hand, you can't take it down for two or three days. First, the yellow cloth is cut according to the desired shoe pattern, and the five poison pattern is drawn on it with a pencil, and then the multicolored thread is embroidered little by little compared to the pattern.

The five poisonous shoes must be made of yellow cloth, which is believed in the folk to drive away poison and ward off evil spirits. Some places have the custom of eating "five yellows" - that is, soybeans, yellow rice, cucumbers, egg yolks and male yellow wine - in some places during the Dragon Boat Festival, which is an example. The yellow cloth for making five poisonous shoes was bought from the market, but under the tight days of the farmers at that time, more were dyed with home-woven native cloth. Half a foot of cloth is enough to make five poisonous shoes for children, so as long as one family dyes yellow cloth, the neighbors do not have to dye it anymore. Because yellow cloth is of little use to farmers, they will not use yellow for clothes and bedding (in the past, only the royal family could use it). Dyed yellow cloth is generally used for babies to make five poisonous shoes, so that this year your family dyes three feet, next year my family dyes five feet on the line.

The layout of the five poison pattern on the five poison shoes is very exquisite, and it should be designed according to the shape of the five poisons - in the five poisons, the toad is the largest in size, so it occupies the front face of the entire shoe, the head of the toad is facing forward, and the two hind legs are extended to the sides of the front of the shoe. Next, snakes and geckos are on one side, and centipedes and scorpions on the other.

Although the weather is getting hotter, the five poison shoes cannot be single shoes, but double layers of clip shoes. The shoes are not only durable, but more importantly, the chinese herbs that drive away poison and evil should be sewn inside the sandwich. These vivid five-poison patterns not only decorate the costumes, but also play the role of "looking at pictures and recognizing objects", which is intended to tell children that such insects are poisonous and will get sick if they bite them. So when you see it, you can't move it, but you have to quickly dodge it, and then tell the adults to destroy them.

A few days before May 5, when I was shopping in the bazaar of the small town, I accidentally saw an old woman with white hair selling five poisoned shoes on the side of the road. Looking at those five poisonous shoes made of yellow cloth, I felt particularly kind, and I couldn't help but think of the five poisonous shoes I wore when I was a child, and remembered the folk song, "Duanyang popular five poisonous shoes, the baby wears to avoid the plague; the folk customs see the family affection, and the hope is like a river." ”