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Chinese Hungry Ghost Festival

5 September 2014 by Eileen

The Chinese Hungry Ghost Festival is also known as Zhong Yuan Jie. In Chinese culture (especially Asian countries), the Chinese Lunar seventh month calendar is regarded as the Ghost Month in which ghosts and spirits, including those of the deceased ancestors, release from the lower realm (Buddhist- the wheel of Samsara) for the whole month. During this month, there will be a grand scale of praying and celebration which will have Getai (singing in Hokkien or Teochew) and dinner with bidding for lucky things on such a night.

Chinese Hungry Ghost Festival culture

This year 2014, the first day of the festival was on 27th July (1st day of the seventh month) and the last day of the seventh month was on 24th August. The fifteenth day of the seventh month in the lunar calendar is called Ghost Day which fell on the 10th August.

My uncle who lives in Singapore, visited some popular Getai sites (in Ang Mo Kio, Serangoon Central and Potong Pasir) and took the time to take some photos to share with my readers.

The Chinese Hungry Ghost Festival is often confused by those who are unfamiliar with the festival. They often think that the festival is for Buddhism, which is wrong! In fact, this is a Chinese culture. It has nothing to do with Buddhism. Of course, this is easily misunderstood for those who are unfamiliar with the festival. All we ask is to respect the Chinese culture when you are in an Asian country. There are a lot of don’t and dos during the Ghost festival. For example, we will avoid walking over any offerings on the street; don’t sit on the front row of the Getai as it reserved for the ghosts and do not pick up any unique items on the floor.

Chinese Hungry Ghost Festival joss sticks

These are the photos are the Getai/Chinese Opera and bidding sessions.

chinese opera for ghost festive

Chinese opera for ghost festive

Chinese Hungry Ghost Festival puppets show ghost festive

Puppets show

Chinese Hungry Ghost Festival bidding ghost festive

Chinese Hungry Ghost Festival offer of goodies for prayers ghost festive

Offer of goodies for prayers ghost festive

Chinese Hungry Ghost Festival for children spirits

Chinese Hungry Ghost Festival offering to vegetarians spirit

Offering to vegetarians spirit

In this photo, there are 12 seats with the food which are meant for the 12 “officer spirits” as each spirit will be in charge of each lunar month to ensure “good behaviour & order” of the spirit population in every month! The 12 “officer spirits” are appointed by the superior God with the poster shown behind the 12 seats!

Chinese Hungry Ghost Festival 12 officers spirits ghost festive

This photo is the Yanluowang (閻羅王/阎罗王). His face was covered by red paper as the prayer has not started yet and the monk would remove the red paper when the prayer starts.

Chinese Hungry Ghost Festival yan luo wang

Here is the Dua Yah Peh (大爷伯) Big Brother in White Robe and Di Ya Peh (二爷伯) 2nd Brother in Black Robe. The two Deities are often known as Dua Di Ya Peh (大二爷伯) by the Southern Chinese of Hokkien and Teochews and also known as Hei Bai Wu Chang (黑白无常) in Mandarin.

Chinese Hungry Ghost Festival Dua Di Ya Peh Hei Bai Wu Chang

Chinese Hungry Ghost Festival paper money for offering ghost festive

Paper money

Once again, I would like to thank my uncle for providing and sharing these photos with my readers!

Chinese Hungry Ghost Festival

Related

Filed Under: Chinese Festivals Tagged With: chinese culture, ghost, temple

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Comments

  1. Red Rose Mummy says

    5 September 2014 at 6:34 pm

    This is very interesting. Not sure I understand the bidding part though, do people bid on items for themselves of the ghost spirits?

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I'm Eileen, a proud mum of two teenagers (aged 17 and 16), my daughter is living with visual impairment. Since launching this blog in May 2012, we’ve continued to grow and evolve, sharing our family’s journey and passions.

I love cooking, crafting, DIY projects, writing about Chinese culture, and creating YouTube reviews.

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