Ghost Festival

The Ghost Festival, also called the Hungry Ghost Festival, is held on the 15th day of the seventh lunar month. Both Buddhists and Taoists celebrate this festival. The belief is that the gate to the underworld opens on the first day of the seventh lunar month. This month is regarded as the Ghost Month. All of the ghosts and spirits are released from hell. They are free to wander for the whole month.Carol Stepanchuk; Charles Choy Wong, Mooncakes and Hungry Ghosts: Festivals of China (San Francisco: China Books & Periodicals, 1991), p. 72 People hold ceremonies to welcome the ghosts and spirits.   

 History 
Traditionally, the Chinese call Ghost Festival "Chung-yuan Festival". Taoists believe it is the birthday of Yenlo Wang, the Demon King.Christian Roy, Traditional Festivals: A Multicultural Encyclopedia, Volume 1 (Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO, 2005), p. 91 In the first half of the 6th century AD it became a Buddhist festival. It has kept the same form since then. During the 20th century Republican and Communist governments saw this as a relic of the past.Buddhist Funeral Cultures of Southeast Asia and China, eds. Paul Williams; Patrice Ladwig (Cambridge; New York: Cambridge University Press, 2012), p. 221  The People’s Republic of China did not allow public religious celebrations including ghost festivals. But reforms in the 1970s allowed these festivals to return.   

 Traditional Rituals 
 The Offering Ritual 
The offering ritual is the most important part of the celebration. People arrange long tables in front of the houses and temples. This is for offering food to ghosts. At the height of the celebration priests toss food and candy in the air. This is to feed the hungry ghosts. Children, and sometimes adults, scramble to gather the sweets. People also offer the ghosts incense, paper clothes and "spirit money".  

 Salvation Lanterns 
Salvation lanterns are used to guiding the wandering spirits and evil ghosts. They are placed at the doors of homes and temples. The lanterns are set up on the last day of the end of the sixth lunar month. They are lit at midnight each night during Ghost month. When the gates to the ghost world are closed, the lanterns are put away.

 Releasing Water Lanterns  
Water lanterns are for the water ghosts who died from drowning. They illuminate the waterways to bring ghosts up to the celebrations. This allows the ghosts from the underworld and underwater are able to be in the same space peacefully. 

 Stealing the Lone Object 
The stealing the lone object activity is called “Chiang-Gu”. This is celebrated in Yi-Lan. Competitors climb up a tall tower to reach a prize. The game was banned for some time due to people falling and being injured or killed. In 1991 the game was brought back.

 Closing the gate of the underworld 
On the first day of the eighth month in the lunar calendar the gates to the temples are closed. This represents the end of the Ghost month. It is the time for the wandering souls to go back to the underworld. A Taoist priest uses a sword to expel away the wandering soul. He shuts the gate of the underworld in the northeast position, and brings the event to a successful close.

Ghost festivals are celebrated across Asia. This includes China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Singapore, Malaysia, Vietnam and Japan. It is also celebrated by many of the 34 million Chinese who live overseas.

 References 

 Other websites 
 Hungry Ghost Festival..., Huffington Post
 Hungry Ghost Festival Singapore 
 In pictures: Hungry Ghost Festival, BBC News
 Hungry Ghost Festival in Malaysia,  USA Today 

Category:Festivals in China