The morning after…

Friday was the 15th day of the lunar month, thereby marking the end of the Festival of the Hungry Ghost.

The ghosts would have been wandering the earth for the previous two weeks so are believed to be particularly ravenous and tired by this point so it’s important that everything possible is done to appease them. Given this festival possibly has its origins 2,000 years ago, that’s a lot of ghosts and those older ones would be very tired by now. And grumpy.

The festival has both Taoism and Buddhist links. It’s now mainly about recognising family members and paying respect to the dead.

For the first two weeks during the seventh month of the lunar calendar, ghosts roam the earth as the gates of hell are opened and all the restless ghosts come forward. These are ghosts that may not have had a proper burial or were poorly treated by their family. There’s more than one level of hell in Buddhism so the plural ‘gates’ is correct.

Heaven’s gates are also opened at this time so ghosts from there can join their families for some fun and food (there’s always a lot of food involved in any festival involving the lunar calendar).

After wandering the earth for two weeks, the ghosts are believed to be particularly ravenous and tired so it’s important that everything possible is done to appease them, in addition to the daily rituals.

Those that aren’t generally aware of the lunar calendar know it’s Hungry Ghost time by the smell of burning paper mingled with that of candles and incense. Every evening, many people burn paper offerings (same as the kind of things offered at funerals e.g. paper houses, cars etc and hell banknotes since no-one would burn the real thing!), burn incense and make food offerings to represent a feast for their ancestors. With their ancestors appeased, it is hoped the other ghosts don’t become hungry and will use the light of the candles to find their way back to heaven or hell depending on their starting point.

As with most Festivals, there’s some definite things that shouldn’t be done. The only real ‘should’ is to make sure offerings are made and keep the home lights on as ghosts like shadows. Some rock salt outside doors is a good idea too since ghosts are afraid of it. Temple visits are of course, necessary so as to pray for the dead.

The shouldn’ts include anything that will disturb the spirits which can include sweeping up the offerings that have been left out and talking about the ghosts as they could become upset.

Some of the more unusual ones are not to go swimming as a ghost of a drowned person could pull you underwater; keep clothes indoors to dry so a ghost won’t try them on and leave behind negative energy, better also keep your doors shut so ghosts won’t enter your unit/flat/apartment and no going to the toilet on a tree (this is not a land of road trips so I’m a bit unsure who does this) so as not to upset the spirit inside the tree; no night photography so spirits won’t be captured.

Everything is now back to ‘normal’, the price of wedding venues has again increased, as during the Hungry Ghost Festival, it’s bad luck to get married.

* Thanks to Ray Parker Jr. For those that would like a stroll down memory lane to an 80s video…