Hungry Ghost Observance Period.....

Just as Halloween is for Americans, the ‘Hungry Ghost festival’ is for the Chinese.
For those who have never heard of this festival, here are the essential ‘spooky’ facts on this festival.



Hungry Ghost festival is a popular occasion that is taken very seriously by the Chinese. This festival that falls on the 7th month of the lunar New Year is celebrated mainly in China and other countries like Singapore & Malaysia. It is believed by the Chinese that during this month, the gates of hell are opened to free the hungry ghosts who then wander to seek food on Earth. Some even think that the ghosts would seek revenge on those who had wronged them in their lives. The reason why the Chinese celebrate this festival is to remember their dead family members and pay tribute to them. They also feel that offering food to the deceased appeases them and wards off bad luck.




Another belief among the Chinese is that the dead return to visit their living relatives during the 7th month and thus they prepare a sumptuous meal for the ‘hungry ghosts’. The Chinese feel that they have to satisfy the ghosts in order to get good fortune and luck in their lives. During the 7th month, the Chinese offer prayers to the deceased relatives and burn joss sticks.



The Chinese also do a lot of offerings to the deceased. These offerings are made by burning fake money notes, which are also known as ‘hell money’ and even paper television or radio sets. Some families also burn paper houses & cars to give to their dead relatives. The Chinese feel that these offerings reach the ghosts and help them live comfortably in their world.
The Chinese regard the 15th of the month as an important date to give a feast to the ghosts. On this date, the family will cook a lot of dishes and offer them to the deceased. This is done to please the ghosts and also to gain good luck for the family. 15 days after the feast, the festival will be over, as the Chinese believe that the ghosts return back to where they come from.

BELIEVE IT OR NOT!!!........

To let you know how "spooky" it can get during this period ...read this article that I have extracted about this guy Huang from Kuantan.............



KUANTAN: While burning joss paper as an offering to wandering spirits during the seventh lunar month, Huang had impulsively decided to take a picture of the flames with his camera phone. He was later surprised to discover that he had taken the photo of a "ghost".


"The photo showed a figure in red with a pale white face. At first I thought I was the only person who could see it. But when I showed the photo to my friends and relatives, they stared at it in shock."

He said that after his karaoke entertainment center had closed for the day, he had gone with his family to a nearby road to burn offerings to wandering spirits, in accordance with Chinese traditional customs for the Hungry Ghost festival. He had not expected to photograph something supernatural."When I was burning the offerings, I noticed that the joss papers were burning in a very attractive manner, and that a small whirlwind of air was gradually rising above the flames. It had a peculiar shape and looked very interesting."



"I pulled out my camera phone and took 5 photos of the fire as a record, and then put the phone back in my pocket before continuing to burn the remaining offerings. After I was finished, I went home to rest.

He said that when he looked at the pictures on his camera phone the next day, he was surprised to see that one of the photos showed the upper half of a person's body, complete with a pale white face, above the fire. He suspected that he had taken a photo of a "ghost."