Ghost Festival

Introduction

The Ghost Festival is a traditional Chinese festival and holiday, which is celebrated by Chinese in many countries. In the Chinese calendar (a lunisolar calendar), the Ghost Festival is on the 14th night of the seventh lunar month.

In Chinese tradition, the seventh month in the Chinese calendar is called the Ghost Month (鬼月), in which ghosts and spirits, including those of the deceased ancestors, come out from the lower world to visit earth. The Ghost Festival is the climax of a series of the Ghost Month celebrations. Traditionally, ancestor worshiping was an important part of the festivals, with activities including preparing ritualistic offering food, and burning hell money and bags containing cloth to please the visiting ghosts and spirits of the ancestors, as well as other deities. Other activities include, burying 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." A very solemn festival of ancestor worshiping, the festival nevertheless represents a connection between the ancestors and the descendants, the living and the dead, earth and heaven, as well as body and soul.

The Ghost Festival shares some similarities with the predominantly Mexican observance of El Día de los Muertos. Due to theme of ghosts and spirits, the festival is sometimes also known as the Chinese Halloween, though many have debated the difference between the two.

Buddhist Ghost Festival: Ullambana

The Ghost Festival has roots in the Buddhist festival Ullambana and also in Daoist culture. In the Tang Dynasty, the Buddhist festival Ullambana and traditional festivities were mixed and celebrated on one day. Thus, the Ghost Festival has special meaning for all Buddhists.

Ullambana Origin: The Buddha's happy day

To Buddhists, the seventh lunar month is a month of joy. This is because the fifteen day of the seventh month is the Buddha's joyful day and the day of rejoice for monks.

The origins of the Buddha's joyful day can be found in the scriptures. When the Buddha was alive, his disciples meditated in the forests of India during the rainy season of summer. Three months later, on the fifteen day of the seventh month, they would emerge from the forests to celebrate the completion of their meditation and report their progress to the Buddha. Because the number of monks who attained enlightenment during that period was high, the Buddha was very pleased.

Mahāmaudgalyāyana Saves His Mother From Hell

The Buddhist origins of the festival can be traced back to a story that originally came from India, but later took on culturally Chinese overtones. In the Ullambana Sutra, there is a well descriptive account of a well-to-do merchant who eventually gives up his trade to become a Buddhist monk. He became one of the Buddha's chief disciples. His name was Mahāmaudgalyāyana. (Ch. 目連, Mulian, Pāli Mahāmoggallāna)

After he attained the title of arhat, he thought of his father and mother, and wondered what happened to them. He used his clairvoyance to see where they were reborn and found his father in the god realm.

However, his mother had been reborn in a lower realm, known as the Realm of Hungry Ghosts. His mother took on the form of a hungry ghost---it could not eat because its throat was very thin and no food could pass through, yet it was always hungry because it had a fat belly. His mother had been greedy with the money he left her. He had instructed her to kindly host any Buddhist monks that ever came her way, but instead she withheld her kindness and her money. It was for this reason she was reborn in the realm of hungry ghosts.

Mahāmaudgalyāyana eased his mother's suffering by receiving the instructions of feeding pretas from the Buddha. Buddha instructed Mahāmaudgalyāyana to place food on a clean plate, recite the food transformation mantra seven times, snap his fingers then tip the food on clean ground. By doing so, the preta's hunger was relieved and through these merits, his mother was born as a dog.

Once again, Mahāmaudgalyāyana sought the Buddha's advice to help his mother gain a human birth. The Buddha established a day after the traditional summer retreat (the 15th day of the seventh month in the lunar calendar, usually mid-to-late August) on which Mahāmaudgalyāyana was to offer food to 500 bhikkhus. Through the merits created, Mahāmaudgalyāyana's mother gained a human birth.

Due to Confucian influence, the offering became directed towards ancestors rather than the Sangha and ancestor worship has replaced the simple ritual of relieving the hunger of pretas. However some Buddhist temples still continue the ancient practice of donating to the Sangha.

A difference between the two festivals

Chinese Buddhists often say that there is a difference between Ullambana and the traditional Chinese Zhongyuan Jie, usually saying people have mixed superstitions (such as burning joss paper items) and delusional thoughts, rather than think that Ullambana is actually a time of happiness.[citation needed] This time of happiness is sometimes used as a reason for the festival to be called as the Chinese Halloween.

Ghost Festival in Malaysia

Ghost Festival in Malaysia is modernized by the 'concert-like' live performings, it has its own characteristic and is not similar to other Ghost Festivals in other countries. The live show is popularly known as 'Koh-tai' by the Hokkien-speaking peoples, it was performed by a group of singers, dancers and entertainers, on a temporary stage that setup within the residential district. The festival is funded by the residents of each individual residential districts.