Tonight we visit Chang'an on the morning of the Dragon Boat Festival — the Duanwu , the fifth day of the fifth lunar month — nearly 1,300 years ago, at the height of the Tang Dynasty.

In this quiet sleep story, the younger daughter of a Chang'an household sits before her worktable on the morning of the Dragon Boat Festival to finish the last of the thirteen fragrant sachets she has been making since the beginning of the fourth month.

She grinds angelica root, calamus, agarwood, and camphor together in the stone mortar, fills each small embroidered silk bag through the gap in the stitching, and closes each one with a drawstring of five-colored cord finished with a braided tassel. When the row is complete — crimson sachets for her parents and grandmother, saffron sachets for the household's senior attendants, soft green kept for herself ...