Five Yellows of the Dragon Boat Festival: Cucumber, yellow croaker, realgar wine, salted duck yolk, and eel (eel).
Five Reds of the Dragon Boat Festival: Roast duck, amaranth, red oil duck egg, lobster, and eel.
Three Whites of the Dragon Boat Festival: Water chestnut, salted egg white, and white-cut meat.
The Significance of Eating Five Reds During the Dragon Boat Festival
Eating five red foods during the Dragon Boat Festival is to drive away evil spirits and symbolize a happy family reunion.
In short, eating five red foods is to achieve the purpose of driving away evil forces. On this day, people need to eat five kinds of red-colored foods. The five reds may vary by region, and common ones include roast duck, amaranth, red oil duck eggs, lobster, and realgar wine. Because the Dragon Boat Festival is a day for family reunion, the bright red colors of the five red foods symbolize happiness and reunion, which has been passed down through generations. This is the meaning behind eating five red foods during the Dragon Boat Festival.
Why does eating five reds have the purpose of driving away evil forces? Actually, it is related to an ancient mythological legend, which involves five poisonous creatures. The purpose of eating five reds was to scare away these five poisonous creatures and prevent them from causing harm. It is said that the Jade Emperor announced that the poisonous creatures in heaven had to wait until the first thunder of spring (the thunder of awakening) before they could go to the human world. Because snakes, spiders, scorpions, centipedes, and geckos are afraid of cold, they agreed to go to the human world after the Dragon Boat Festival when the weather became warm. However, when they arrived on the Dragon Boat Festival, they saw a family frying "five poisonous" foods. To the eyes of the five poisonous creatures, this "five red dish" looked like their blood, so they were terrified and ran away in panic, never daring to return again.
