16. China – The Hungry Ghost Festival
The Hungry Ghost Festival is celebrated throughout China and Hong Kong for an entire month, starting from the seventh day of the seventh month of the lunar calendar. The festival is typically celebrated through mid-to-late August and early September. The first day of the celebration is known as Ghost Day, while the entire seventh month of the lunar calendar is known as Ghost Month. During the festival, the living is expected to pay respect to the dead, and the dead are believed to visit those still living.
Ritual activities during the festival include offerings of food, burning incense and burning joss paper, a traditional Chinese paper meant for offerings. Other traditions involve burning paper mache representations of everyday items as well as buying and releasing paper boats or lanterns. The release of lanterns containing flames is believed to guide the souls of the ancestors to the afterlife.
Large, complicated vegetarian meals are traditional during the festival, with portions left aside for the consumption of ancestral spirits visiting the family. The burning of both the joss paper and the representation of everyday items is believed to send those items to the souls in the afterlife in a form that is useful to them. Both Buddhists and Taoists celebrate the festival.
Where did we find this stuff? Here are our sources:
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