Back in February, Marie Mockett posted some interesting photos here about the Japanese tradition of placing holly and sardine heads on door fronts during Setsubun there. Marie said that her mother explained that it was a very old Japanese custom, and is intended to help ward off demons (oni).

During the Dragon Boat Festival here in late May/early June each year (it falls on the 5th day of the 5th month on the lunar calendar), called Duanwu Jie (端午節), there is a tradition that was once an integral part of the childhood memories of many people over 30 years of age, but is fast disappearing year after year as the modern age takes its toll on old customs. But some people still hang cattail and Chinese mugwort bouquets near their front doors to ward off evil.

In my ten years here, I had never seen these mugwort and cattail bouquets on front doors, until someone pointed one out to me last week on a local side street and I said to meself: “Whoa, how come I never saw those before?”

Learn something new every day. [And what I also found interesting is how both Japan and Isla Formosa use old traditions of placing certain kinds of superstitious bouquets on front doors during holidays to ward off evil spirits. My guess is that both these traditions had their genesis long ago in ancient China, and later emigrated to the Japanese archipelago and this once-green piece of real estate off the coast of the Middle Kingdom.