Rituals, activities kicked off for Ghost Festival

In the traditional township of Lukang in central county of Changhua, a Buddhist temple dedicated to worshipping the

Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva, which is well known for taking care of ghosts in the hell, yesterday started to launch water lanterns to light the way for the lost souls in the water, call the souls to come on land to enjoy the offerings, and pray for the early reincarnation of these souls.

During the three-day activity, over 10,000 people are estimated to release lotus water lanterns to their drowned family members, relatives or friends in the past years to relieve wandering souls.

In the northern city of Keelung, residents started to feel strong joyful festival sentiment yesterday afternoon, when parades of people wearing traditional costumes and performing various folklore arts were happily proceeding on major streets of the northern port city. Tomorrow night, Keelung residents will also release lotus water lanterns.

In related news, the Cabinet-level Environmental Protection Administration (EPA) is actively promoting the collective burning of paper ghost money in the municipal incinerators for the Ghost Festival this year, in order to reduce pollution.

But environmental activists call for the government to ask local people not to burn paper money for ghosts in the upcoming Ghost Festival

An EPA official said that the EPA hopes people will eventually abandon the ghost money burning tradition, but in the meantime the city’s incinerators will provide air pollution control for such a practice.

The EPA has been promoting collective burning over the past five years. EPA statistics show that the volume of collective burning has grown almost 15 times to 3,800 tons of ghost money from 260 tons five years ago, the paper said.

The Ghost Festival is a traditional Chinese festival and holiday, which is celebrated by Chinese in many countries.

In Chinese tradition, the 15th day of the seventh month in the lunar calendar is called Ghost Day and the seventh month in general is regarded as the Ghost Month, in which ghosts and spirits, including those of the deceased ancestors, come out from the lower realm.

Traditionally, the Ghost Month starts from dawn on the first day, when the gates of the netherworld open, and ends on the 29th day of the month, when the gates close. People holt rituals to petition for salvation from disasters and misfortune during the celebration, which reaches a peak on the 15th day.

During the Ghost Month, every household has to prepare meat, fruits, fresh flowers, and other sacrificial items; they then offer these to the hungry ghosts at a temple, or on a temporary altar table set up in front of their homes. They also ask monks to say prayers for their deceased loved ones as well as those lost souls who have no living descendants left on earth.

This is known as Jhongyuan Pudu, or General Salvation.

The ceremonies take place in temple and on streets. On the afternoon of the Pudu, local residents prepare offerings and carry them to the main altar at a temple to join in the ceremonies there. For the street festivities, local residents prepare chicken, duck, and fish for offerings in front of their homes in a ceremony known as doorway worship.

Subscribe to The China Post and save 25%. Click here

SharePrintEmail

Write a Comment

Enter your comments - 3000 characters max

Type in image code

Submit

 Receive China Post promos Respond to this email