The bright moon hung high, casting silvery light over Wuchang City.
Today was the fifth day of the fifth month, marking the start of "Early Dragon Boat Festival," a grand festivity that had continued for several days, and was officially now beginning.
The townspeople got up early in the morning and began to get busy.
They hung the harvested mugwort over their doors, sprinkled realgar beside their homes to ward off the miasmic airs, and hung a portrait of "True Man Zhang" in their hall, while the people from the City God Temple went door to door distributing "Dragon Boat Festival talismans."
Relatives and neighbors visited each other with gifts, which were simple—just realgar wine and zongzi. The children at home, up early, had realgar applied to their foreheads and earholes, or a character for "king" written on their foreheads, and they also had to wear incense bags and tie five-colored silk threads.
Of course, the young men and women were also busy.
