The Dragon Boat Festival, the fifth day of the fifth lunar month, marks the beginning of summer in the Chinese calendar, and to drive off the insects and contagious diseases that summer brings, the Chinese have traditionally drunk hsiung-huang chiu, or realgar wine, and hung slips of kudzu and artemisia over their doorways on that day.
也由於夏天蚊蟲孳生、傳染病流行，所以在端午這一天，人們飲雄黃酒，門上插菖蒲、艾草。雄黃有三硫化二砷的成分，本身具有「毒性」，可殺死蟲虱，白蛇傳的白蛇娘娘就是在端午喝了雄黃酒才現出原形的。