The 7th month of the Chinese lunisolar calendar is also called 鬼月 (Ghost Month) as this is the time when ghosts and spirits come out from the under world to visit earth, with the 15th day marking the halfway point of the month which brings us to 盂蘭節 (Festival of the liberation from suffering), also known as 中元節 (Festival of the fifteenth day of the seventh lunar month), often translated to English as the “Hungry Ghosts Festival”.
The festival is a Sinification, through 道教 (Daoism) in it’s culture and traditions, plus elements of 儒家 (Confucianism) such as ancestor worship, with the Buddhist festival of उल्लम्बन (Deliverance from suffering) and has it’s roots with the Buddhist story of a devote disciple of Buddha by the name of मौद्गल्यायन (maudgalyāyana), known in Chinese as 目連 (Mù Liǎn).
目連 (Mù Liǎn) had reached a high knowledge of Buddhist scriptures was able to behold his late mother’s agony in hell as she had led a miserly mortal life and was doomed to live eternity as a hungry ghost in the bowels of hell. Seeing his mother with a huge distended belly and very small mouth, unable to swallow any food and obviously in much distress, 目連 (Mù Liǎn) rushed to feed her some rice but it was instantaneously reduced to ashes on touching her mouth.
目連 (Mù Liǎn) begged for advice from Buddha in how to relieve his mother’s pain but Buddha said that the only way to balance the sins committed by her was to offer an assortment of fruits and vegetables in 盂蘭 (Yú Lán) bowls to the Buddhist monks.
Future generations continued this tradition providing offerings of fruits and vegetables to Buddhist monks and the festival turned into a time of rememberance of ancestors. For example, in 香港 (Hong Kong); aside from the offering of fruits and vegetables, there will also be the burning of jos sticks, jos paper and paper money in the form of “Hell bank notes” with fantastic denominations such as $500 000 000, printed just like regular bank notes but bear an image of the mythical 玉皇 (Jade Emperor). Modern life melds with tradition since it’s also common to see crêpe paper and balsa models of objects ranging from televisions, refridgerators, cars, houses and even private jets burnt along with other offerings for the deceased.
People may also release miniture paper boats and lotus lanterns lit with a candle down rivers and seas as these are believed to guidance for lost souls. The kins of drowning victims will follow the trails of the lanterns until they are out of sight to liberate their lost loved one’s soul.
To finish off with a little bit of trivia, Chinese ghosts don’t always take on real forms. More often than not, they’ll come and leave in a breeze, but sometimes they manifest as horrifying images of their death: hanged ghosts have protruding tongues, drowned ghosts leave water wherever they stay and young beautiful women make the most scary ghosts, with long hair covering their pale faces with blood trickling down. The ghosts aren’t invincible though, as 鍾馗 (Zhōng Kúi) is the mythical person reputed for subjugating demons!
