Gourds in Ancient China
In China, the calabash, or "bottle-gourd" plant, has long been used as a food and medicine, and its hard shell as a bottle, a dipper and even an ancient musical instrument. Gourds have traditionally been used to carry medicine, wine and "magic" elixirs. Gourds were also tied to the backs of children and boat people to serve as life preservers.
The Chinese language has a large number of written characters but a smaller number of spoken sounds so many Chinese characters share the same or similar pronunciation (please see Hidden Meaning of Symbols).
The Chinese have a strong propensity to associate similar sounding words. For example, trailing gourd vines are described in Chinese as man (蔓}. This same character can also be pronounced as wan and has the exact same pronunciation and meaning as 万 which means "10,000". Because the gourd contains many seeds, the Chinese associate the gourd with "10,000 children". In ancient China, parents hoped for many sons and grandsons so the gourd became an important charm symbol for a large family with many children.
The gourd is popular as a charm to ward off evil spirits and disease because its first character (hulu 葫芦) has the same pronunciation as the word to "protect" or "guard" (hu 护) and also the word for "blessing" (hu 祜).
The Chinese word for gourd, hulu (葫芦), has other auspicious associations as well. In some dialects, the character hu (葫) has a similar pronunciation to fu (福) which means "happiness" or "good fortune". Therefore, saying hulu (葫芦) for gourd would sound similar to fulu (福禄) which means "happiness and rank (as in attaining a high government office)".
The Chinese consider the number "8" to be very auspicious and an omen for good luck (see Hidden Meaning of Symbols). The gourd, as the gourd charm below illustrates, resembles the number "8".The gourd was considered to have a magical power to protect Chinese children from smallpox. The custom was for parents, on the last night of the year, to hang a gourd shell near where a child who had not yet had smallpox slept. It was believed that the god of smallpox and measles would "empty" the smallpox into the gourd shell instead of the child if there was one nearby. Should the child happen to come down with smallpox in the future, it was believed that the illness would be less severe if the parents followed this custom.
Also, in ancient times, old men would frequently be seen carrying gourds on their backs. Gourds, therefore, gradually became associated with old age and charms, such as the one pictured above, took on the gourd-shape to signify longevity.
SOURCE OF ARTICLE: http://primaltrek.com/gourd.html
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