Chinese Hungry Ghost Festival

With Halloween only a month away, I thought I'd start a series of blogs representing the spirit of the holiday.

According to Chinese legend, hungry and restless ghosts roam the world to visit their living descendants.

Traditional Chinese belief has the seventh month of the lunar year reserved for the Hungry Ghost festival (Yu Lan). For 2017, the festival starts on September 5th. This is a boisterous celebration of feasts and music. According to Chinese folklore, the ghosts who wander the physical world are ravenous and envious after dying without descendants or because they are not honored by relatives who are still alive.

Because the hungry spirits need to be appeased, prayers and incense are offered to deceased relatives. Fake currency, known as hell money, along with paper copies of material wealth are burned. The ghosts then use them when they return to the underworld.

Neighborhoods hold nightly shows of Chinese operas and pop concerts. The front row of seats remain empty because they are reserved for the ghosts. These shows are accompanied by extravagant feasts. On the 15th day of the lunar month, families offer cooked food to the ghosts with the hope that the spirits will help them find good jobs, get good grades, or even win the lottery.

Tradition holds that there are 14 things you should not do during the Hungry Ghost Festival month:

1)       Don't stay out late at night, spirits might follow you home

2)       Don't stab your chopsticks on your bowl of rice, it resembles the joss sticks offerings to the dead

3)       Don't take photos at night, they might capture things you don't want to see

4)       Don't celebrate your birthday at night

5)       Don't open an umbrella, especially a red one, in the house

6)       Avoid working late during this month

7)       Don't cover your forehead

8)       Don't play games that can attract spirits such as Ouija Board

9)       Don't wait at a bus stop after midnight

10)     Don't use black or a dark color nail polish, the spirits might think you are one of them

11)     Don't enter a cemetery or abandoned house

12)     Don't spit or blow your nose in public or at a tree/plant

13)     Don't lean against the wall, spirits like to stick on walls because they're cooler

14)     Don't turn your head around if someone pats you on the shoulder

Next week in my spirit of Halloween series, I'll be posting a blog about America's Haunted Hotels.