Hungry Hungry Ghosts

This island is haunted! Well, at least it is for the next few weeks. The seventh month in the lunar calendar is "Ghost Month" and this year it happens to be in September. My understanding of this month long holiday comes from research I have done on my own combined with the information given to me by those that live here. This time of year is special in that the gate that holds the spirits of the dead in their own realm is left open thus allowing them to visit the land of the living.

There are other Eastern holidays that pay respect to the deceased, but this one is different in that the ghosts that leave the spirit world and come to ours during this time are angered because their families still on Earth forgot to pay homage to them after they died. These ghosts have come directly from hell where they roam the Earth seeking nothing but food and other pleasures.

These angered spirits obviously need to be appeased and so people leave offerings in the form of elaborate food arrangements on tables outside on the sides of the streets and next to their homes in the hopes that the spirits will consume the food and leave their families in peace.

This last Tuesday (September 5th) our building complex had a celebration all afternoon for the festival. A massive carnival style tent was erected, at least five dozen tables with offerings were laid out, and a temporary shrine was placed at the head of the tent.

The view from our front door.

The inside of the tent with all of the offerings on the tables.

Each table belonged to a different household, which meant that each one was unique. While they all had both food and beverage items alike, the exact types varied from table to table.

This is an example of one table. It had entire cooked birds on it as well as cans of jams.

While we were inside our apartment we heard loud music and banging begin without warning. Where the shine was, at the head of the tent, they had set up a karaoke machine and three women dressed in black were singing with microphones to the shrine while a man played on an electric keyboard. I have no idea what the song was about but it was neat to see and hear.

Keyboard guy

A decent view of the shrine.

20 video of the music they were putting on for everyone.

The 5th must've been an extra special day during Ghost Month because everyone, and I mean everyone, was burning ghost money all day long. "Ghost Money" isn't money at all. What it actually is is pieces of parchment paper with personal messages written on them meant for those who are dead. What you do is you get this special kind of paper, write what you want to say to those who are departed, and then you burn the paper in a special brazier outside of your home. The message is then delivered to the one who is in the spirit world. Kind of cool, right? I actually really like the idea. I think it's really positive, unlike a lot of other religious practices that involve rituals for the deceased. 

Typically people only burn ghost money, or their messages for the dead, on Sunday. Every Sunday during my walk to and from church the streets are filled with burning braziers and the world smells of fire. The 5th was unusual because it was a Tuesday but everyone was burning ghost money as well as this celebration happening at our apartment complex. I still don't understand what the significance of the 5th was, but it was definitely important.

There are a bunch of taboos during Ghost month too. Some of them that we've been warned about are:

• You're not supposed to go swimming in any large body of water during Ghost month because there's a higher likelihood that you'll drown.
• NEVER get married during Ghost month. That's just asking for a disastrous marriage.
• You should avoid staying out late at night as much as possible, especially once it's dark.
• Traveling long distances during Ghost month is also not a good idea.

It's always interesting to learn about other cultures and their traditions and it's even better to experience them first hand. Ghost month will still be going on for a while so I wonder what else I'll get to see in that time?