The Festival of Hungry Ghosts, or Ghost Day is a Buddhist/Taoist festival which takes place on the 15th night of the seventh month, which, in 2024, falls on 18 August. 10 things you might not know about the festival:
It is celebrated in China, India, Japan, Taiwan, Cambodia, Singapore and Thailand.
It is part of Ghost Month, which is celebrated throughout the seventh month of the lunar calendar.
On this day, the gates of Heaven and Hell are said to open, allowing the dead to visit the living. Some of them are hungry, and some are jealous of the living.
The origin of the festival lies with a monk who discovered that his mother had died and become a hungry ghost because of sins she had committed during her life. The monk asked the Buddha what he needed to do to save her, and was told to make offerings of food and clothes every year on this date. It eventually worked and his mother got to be reincarnated.
Hence a big part of the Festival of Hungry Ghosts is making offerings to ancestors. These are often food items brought to temples or left by the side of the road. People might also burn items made from joss paper, which is said to be of value in the afterlife. The burning of models of luxury goods or joss paper banknotes provides the ghosts with anything they may desire on the other side.
Families will get together for a special meal and will lay places for people in the family who have died as if they were still living.
In some places there are theatrical performances and concerts put on especially for the ghosts, at night, as the ghosts are more active then. The volume is cranked up because ghosts are attracted to the sound. The living can attend as well, but they must leave the front row of seats empty for the ghosts.
Shops may be closed in order to keep the streets empty for the ghosts, and households burn incense at night outside the front door to ward of the jealous ghosts. Children and pregnant women are encouraged to stay indoors as the ghosts are especially fond of them.
Two weeks after the festival, at the end of Ghost Month, lanterns shaped like lotuses are lit and set afloat in rivers to guide all the wandering ghosts back to the afterlife.
There are a number of things you mustn’t do at this time. Don’t buy a car or a house, because this might make a ghost jealous of you and provoke it to attack you. Don’t wear Red or Black clothing. Don’t touch or step over the offerings left at the roadside. If you do so accidentally, you must apologise immediately and the ghost will forgive you. Do not look under the altar because there could be ghosts under there feasting. Don’t leave laundry out overnight as the ghosts could put on your clothes in order to get in your house. Avoid Swimming, because ghosts who died by drowning might be after a living person to take their place. Don’t touch anyone on the head or shoulder as this makes them more vulnerable to the ghosts. Finally, if you detect an unusual aroma or hear someone call your name, don’t respond as it could be a trap set by a ghost.
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