Hungry Ghost???....Try an all you can eat Chinese buffet.

In the land of the rising sun, China for those of you who have no clue what I was talking about for a minute, there is a festival that has taken place for hundreds of years. In a society/culture/belief of China there stands to be quite a number of supernatural and spiritual festivals that take place. One such festival is called the Hungry Ghost Festival which is celebrated on the 15^th month of the 7^th lunar month…yeah I tried finding that one on the calendar too, if you find it let me know.

Actually on the the fifteenth 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 Chineese tradition. This is the time when the ghosts of the deceased come out fomr the lower realm and walk amongst the living. The people would make altars flled with food or fake money in order to appease those who have past on and to appease the Gods of those past on who may not have been good people. Sometimes they make small boats filled with lanterns and then are floated on the river which helps to give the dead direction as where t go. There are many ways to celebrate this holiday so long as it appeases the deceased.

Can you imagnie a scheduled day when the gates of Heaven and Hell would both opena dn converse amongst the living. I don’t know about you, but the imagery of Ghostbusters after the containment grid was shut down comes to mind when the ghost are running all over the place. To hold a concert and the first five rows are empty becayuse they are reserved for the dead? This may see pretty “backwoodsish” yet this is what they believe, this is mainly based within the Budhist Taoists religion of the far east.

Now this isnt just a Chinese celebration, this festival or ones like it are also celebrated in places such as  Japan, Singapore, Vietnam and Taiwan. The middle eastern culture tend to be more aware of the dead and while they mounr just as we do in the western world they however see to hold onto their loved ones and pay much more respect for them not only in the living form but in the spiritual form as well.

The Hungry Ghost Festival is just one of many wasy the asian culture embraces the after life and which leads me to wonder why there aren’t more asian ghost hunting groups within the country. I guess one may never know.

Be safe and have an eggroll,

Jon Bolton