The Ghost Festival or Hungry Ghost Festival, also known as the Zhongyuan Festival in Taoism and the Yulanpen Festival in Buddhism, is a traditional festival held in certain East and Southeast Asian countries. According to the traditional Chinese lunisolar calendar, the Ghost Festival is on the 15th night of the seventh month (14th in parts of southern China).Chow 2015
In Chinese culture, the fifteenth day of the seventh month in the traditional Chinese calendar is called Ghost Day or (especially in Taiwan) Pudu () and the seventh month is generally regarded as the Ghost Month, in which ghosts and spirits, including those of deceased ancestors, come out from the lower realm (Diyu or Preta). Distinct from both the Qingming Festival (or Tomb Sweeping Day, in spring) and Double Ninth Festival (in autumn) in which living descendants pay homage to their deceased ancestors, during Ghost Festival, the deceased are believed to visit the living.
On the fifteenth day the realms of Heaven and Hell and the realm of the living are open, and both Taoists and Buddhists would perform rituals to transmute and absolve the sufferings of the deceased. Intrinsic to the Ghost Month is veneration of the dead, where traditionally the filial piety of descendants extends to their ancestors even after their deaths. Activities during the month would include preparing ritualistic food offerings, burning incense containing Styrax benzoin, and burning joss paper, a papier-mâché form of material items such as clothes, gold, and other fine goods for the visiting spirits of the ancestors. Elaborate meals (often vegetarian) would be served with empty seats for each of the deceased in the family, treating the deceased as if they are still living. Ancestor worship is what distinguishes Qingming Festival from Ghost Festival, because the latter includes paying respects to all deceased, including the same and younger generations, while the former only includes older generations. Other festivities may include buying and releasing miniature paper boats and lanterns on water, which signifies giving directions to the lost ghosts and spirits of the ancestors and other deities.
Origins
The name relates to the concept of the hungry ghost, the Chinese translation of the term preta in Buddhism. It plays a role in Chinese Buddhism and Taoism as well as in Chinese folk religion, and represents beings who were originally living people, who have died, and who are driven by intense emotional needs in an animalistic way.Venerable Yin-shun. The Way to Buddhahood. Massachusetts: Wisdom Publications: 1998.Eberhard, Stephen F. The Ghost Festival in Medieval China. New Jersey: Princeton University Press: 1988. Hungry ghosts, by contrast, are a much more exceptional case, and would only occur in very unfortunate circumstances, such as if a whole family were killed or when a family no longer venerated their ancestors.
As a Taoist festival: Taoism has the "Three Yuan" theory (representing the Three Great Emperor-Officials), which the name "Zhong Yuan" comes from. The festival flourished during the Tang dynasty, whose rulers were partial to Taoism; and "Zhongyuan" became well established as the holiday's name.
As a Buddhist festival: The origin story of the modern Ghost Festival, ultimately originated from ancient India, deriving from the Mahayana scripture known as the Yulanpen or Ullambana Sutra.Karashima 2013a The sutra records the time when Maudgalyāyana achieves abhijñā and uses his newfound powers to search for his deceased parents. Maudgalyayana discovers that his deceased mother was reborn into the preta or hungry ghost realm. She was in a wasted condition and Maudgalyayana tried to help her by giving her a bowl of rice. Unfortunately as a preta, she was unable to eat the rice as it was transformed into burning coal. Maudgalyayana then asks the Buddha to help him; whereupon Buddha explains how one is able to assist one's current parents and deceased parents in this life and in one's past seven lives by willingly offering food, etc., to the sangha or monastic community during Pravarana (the end of the monsoon season or vassa), which usually occurs on the 15th day of the seventh month whereby the monastic community transfers the merits to the deceased parents, etc.,Karashima 2013bKarashima 2014
The Theravadan forms of the festival in South and Southeast Asia (including Cambodia's Pchum Ben) are much older, deriving from the Petavatthu, a scripture in the Pali Canon that probably dates to the 3rdcenturyBC.. The Petavatthu account is broadly similar to that later recorded in the Yulanpen Sutra, although it concerns the disciple Sāriputta and his family rather than Moggallāna.
Observance
The Ghost Festival is held during the seventh month of the Chinese calendar. It also falls at the same time as a full moon, the new season, the fall harvest, the peak of Buddhist monastic asceticism, the rebirth of ancestors, and the assembly of the local community.. During this month, the gates of hell are opened up and ghosts are free to roam the earth where they seek food and entertainment. These ghosts are believed to be spirits of those without descendants (or, traditionally, without descendants in the male lineage) or whose descendants did not pay tribute to them after they died. They are desperately hungry, thirsty, and restless as a result. Family members offer food and drink to the ghosts and burn hell bank notes and other forms of joss paper."Hungry Ghost Festival". Essortment, 2002. Retrieved 20 October 2008. Essortment Articles. Joss paper items are believed to have value in the afterlife, considered to be very similar in some aspects to the material world. Families pay tribute to wandering ghosts of strangers so that these homeless souls do not intrude on their lives and bring misfortune. A large feast is held for the ghosts on the day of the ghost festival or thereabouts, when people bring samples of food and place them on an altar or outside a temple or house, to please the ghosts and ward off bad luck. Lotus-shaped lanterns are lit and set afloat in rivers to symbolically guide lost souls to the afterlife.
In some East Asian countries today, live performances are held and everyone is invited to attend. The first row of seats are always empty as this is where the ghosts sit. The shows are always put on at night and at high volumes as the sound is believed to attract and please the ghosts. Some shows include Chinese opera, dramas, and in some areas, even burlesque shows. Traditionally Chinese opera was the main source of entertainment but the newer shows, concerts, dramas, wars, and so forth are referred to as Getai."Chinese Culture: Hungry Ghost Festival" Modern China These acts are better known as "Merry-making"."Ghost Festival" ChinaVoc 2001–2007, Online Store.
For rituals, Chinese Buddhists and Taoists hold ceremonies to relieve ghosts from suffering, many of them holding ceremonies in the afternoon or at night (as it is believed that the ghosts are released from hell when the sun sets). Altars are built for the deceased and priests and monks alike perform rituals for the benefit of ghosts. Monks and priests often throw rice or other small foods into the air in all directions to distribute them to the ghosts. An example of such a ritual is the Chinese Buddhist Yujia Yankou rite, which is performed to facilitate the physical and spiritual nourishment of all sentient beings in saṃsāra, including the hungry ghosts.
During the evening, incense is burnt in front of the doors of households. Incense stands for prosperity in Chinese culture, so families believe that there is more prosperity in burning more incense. During the festival, some shops are closed as they want to leave the streets open for the ghosts. In the middle of each street stands an altar of incense with fresh fruit and sacrifices displayed on it.
Fourteen days after the festival, to make sure all the hungry ghosts find their way back to hell, people float water lanterns and set them outside their houses. These lanterns are made by setting a lotus flower-shaped lantern on a paper boat. The lanterns are used to direct the ghosts back to the underworld, and when they go out, it symbolizes that they have found their way back.
Celebrations in other parts of Asia
Singapore and Malaysia During the 1800s to 1980s in Singapore, temples and various organisations would hire opera troupes to perform street opera for the wandering ghosts and residents alike. Malaysian Chinese would also celebrate the festival with street opera. With the decline of street opera in both Singapore and Malaysia, modern concert-like performances became a prominent feature of the Ghost Festival. Those live concerts are popularly known as Getai in Mandarin () or Koh-tai (Hokkien ) meaning song stages. They are performed by groups of singers, dancers, entertainers, and opera troops or puppet shows on a temporary stage that is set up within a residential district. The festival is usually funded by the temples or organisations of each individual district. During these Getai the front row is left empty for the special guests—the ghosts. It is known to be bad luck to sit on the front row of red seats, if anyone were to sit on them, they would become sick or similarly ailed.
Indonesia
In Indonesia, the festival is popularly known as Chit Gwee Pua (Hokkien ) or Chit Nyiat Pan (Hakka ; Pha̍k-fa-sṳ:Chhit-ngie̍t-pan), Cioko, or Sembahyang Rebutan in Indonesian (Scrambling prayer). Observers gather around temples and bring an offering to a spirit who died in an unlucky way, and after that, they distribute it to the poor. The way people scramble the offerings is the origin of the festival name, and the festival is mostly known in Java Island. Other areas like North Sumatra, Riau, and Riau islands also conduct live concerts known as Getai (Mandarin ) like those in Malaysia and Singapore, and there are also times when observers conduct Tomb sweeping known as Sembahyang Kubur to respect ancestor spirits and garner luck. This is done by buying hell notes or Kim Cua (Hokkien ) and paper-based goods like paper house, paper horse, paper car, etc., which will end up being burned as it is believed that burned goods will be sent to help the spirits feel better in afterlife.
Philippines In the Philippines, the occasion is more popularly known as Ghost Month, as it affects the entire seventh lunisolar month of the Chinese calendar around August to September (which coincided with the months of the Immaculate Heart of Mary and the Feast of Our Lady of Sorrows respectively). The month-long observances are mostly traditionally practiced and originated by Chinese Filipinos which its observance has since spread to other Filipinos that have become aware of it, since it reverberates economically through the stock market as a sizable amount of investors stop investing and put off their investments for later dates past the occasion.
Generally, those who observe it find it to be a very unlucky time of the year, as traditional belief states that the souls of dead relatives, wandering souls or vengeful spirits roam the earth during the month-long occasion. This means that practitioners take extra precautions and caution others of making important decisions when it comes to relationships, professions, businesses, and finances. People avoid practices like: Making life-changing decisions; Getting married or engaged; Starting new businesses; Moving to a new home; Traveling; Signing contracts; Making impulsive major financial decisions; Committing to big professional projects; Inaugurations; Buying or selling off high priced possessions, such as cars, phones, or real estate properties; Staying late out at night, especially kids and elderlies; Making noise or whistling at night; Leaving food or hanging clothes out after sunset and leaving them overnight, since their human-like shape may invite spirits;