Hungry Ghosts' Festival

Da asked me, "Eh, where are all the Chinese Operas that used to be part of the typical Hungry Ghost Festival?" My answer to him was that the organising committee probably lacks money and hence, couldn't afford the performance. This is not surprising as I can hardly imagine people of our generation paying the same kind of regard to the Festival as our elders do. Would you for one actually pay subscription fees to go for the typical auction 10 course dinner (that would be attended by neighbours you might or might not know) with flamboyant Getai singers, watch some opera and bring home a red pail filled with canned food and sugarcane ? For the sake of preserving some heritage, I just might.

Anyway, that brings me to my next point, my personal topic of interest. Why the Hungry Ghost festival? Did it come about because it is a particular period where death rates tend to be higher than usual and hence is the explanation that people of the past have come up with ? Or is it a time for us to remember our ancestors?

And so I found, this Festival has emerged from a convergence of strains of Buddhist, Confucian, Taoist and traditional religious teachings.

For the Buddhist,

"every year on the fifteenth day of the seventh month, they should remember their parents and ancestors with piety and compassion, and repay their parents for their care and love by preparing a feast for offering to the Buddha and the monks."

For the Taoist,

" The ghostly aspect of the seventh month emerged from the Taoist concept of hell. Imprisoned in its lowest reaches, the ghosts may leave hell only with special permission of its king. This privilege would be granted only if the ghost receives no offerings to provide for its welfare, and therefore must return to the living to take what it can. The numbers permitted to leave are restricted.

The Taoist version favored the term P'u-tu, signifying a crossing over, or a general amnesty for the souls of the dead in hell. This amnesty commences on the first day and the ghosts look for whatever food they may find. On the fifteenth day, the feeding of the souls is attended to and each family offers a banquet for the ghosts. By the thirtieth day the ghosts must return to hell.


Afterlife
The seventh month festival serves two objects: ancestors and ghosts. To understand the heart of the festival it is important to observe how ghosts and ancestors have come to be distinguished and accordingly treated. The distinction has a Taoist influence.

During the Hungry Ghost Festival the living show their concern for the dead. The Chinese concept of death and life makes participation mandatory for filial children. This concept emerges from the Taoist philosophical development of yin and yang: two opposing forces of which everything is composed. Yin is the force of death and yang of life, and these elements are at work within individual persons. As a man ages, the yin increases at the expense of the yang, and death marks the total separation of the two. The soul, however, also contains elements of both yin and yang. The former is called kui (demon) and the latter shen (spirit). At death the kui should return to the earth and the shen persist in the grave, family shrine and the other world. If, however, one's soul is not properly cared for, it will persist as kui and cause problems for the living. In popular practice, the kui are considered hungry ghosts thus, clearly, one's ancestor could only be shen. Because both continue to exist and interfere, the living must respond accordingly.

Because ancestors persist after death as shen, the moral obligation to them never ceases. As all subordinates owe their elder kinsmen worship, respect and honor, this duty is passed down throughout the generations, with descendents accumulating more and more ancestors to worship. As the family line continues through the male, only-sons must maintain a strict worship lest the ancestors exist neglected.

While the needs of the ancestors are specifically addressed, the Chinese must remain conscious of the presence of the second object of the seventh month festival.

Who are the ghosts?
Several circumstances cause the kui to become dominant in one's soul, rendering him a hungry ghost. An improper burial, or none at all, is one factor. The burial represents the first stage in sending the ancestor to the underworld. If that task is left undone, the spirit is left homeless. Typically, this occurs when people are killed en mass, or executed, or die away from home and subsequently have been forgotten. Other spirits with descendents become ghosts because of anger. Perhaps they were violently murdered or unjustly executed and now long for vengeance.21

That some ghosts have descendants does create some problems: one's ancestor could be another's ghost. Wolf indicates that although most people would not admit that their ancestor could be a ghost to another, when hard pressed with examples many will admit the fact. Thus in some cases whether a spirit is a ghost or an ancestor depends very much upon one's perspective.

In other cases, the system of filial piety itself contributes to the creation of hungry ghosts. Because worship is restricted to a junior paying homage to a senior, parents would abandon a child's soul rather than worship him. Thus a child who dies has no one to assist him in the afterlife, leaving him homeless, hungry, a kui. To rationalize the child's birth, many believe that such children were strangers in the world of the living and therefore compelled to leave. Likewise, a deceased unmarried daughter may never be worshipped, for only the husband's line and his wives may receive this honor. A woman who dies before marriage is allocated the undignified position of a ghost.

As indicated above, in the Chinese spirit world there exists a large group of homeless and hungry souls, motivated by jealousy of the living, possibly of their own descendents or offspring who have homes, wealth and families, and therefore are the cause of most misfortunes. For that reason they are popularly perceived as spiritual beggars. The beggar is not conceived as lethargic and idle. Rather he represents a vagrant who, because of intense jealousy, attempts to take what belongs to others and willingly threatens and performs ill against his victims to satisfy his own desires. But by giving him something, he should leave one alone. Thus the intent of the Festival of Hungry Ghosts is not to honor but to propitiate the ghosts, lest they prey on the living and obstruct the peace of the ancestors. It is necessary to avoid offending the kui, hence ghosts are referred to as "the good brothers because they would be offended if you called them ghosts." A northern Taiwanese tradition epitomizes the connection. There, on the fifteenth day, the community prepares a huge feast. First the spirits are given opportunity to spiritually partake and then the meal is opened to the earthly beggars to physically eat the food.

As the ghosts could interfere with the ancestor festival, food must be prepared for them. But as it would be dangerous to allow a beggar into one's home, the same holds true for ghosts. So offerings are made on tables outside the home. Offerings usually consist of whole cooked fowl and large pieces of meat and delicacies. Other attractive items such as beer, cigarettes and washing implements are left out for the homeless ghosts to use. [this is really interesting yeah?]

Finally, I see some light.

So the next question is, tradition or superstitution? Guess it depends on whether we take the Buddhist or Taoist view. =p


- ANCESTORS AND GHOSTS: THE PHILOSOPHIC AND RELIGIOUS ORIGINS OF THE HUNGRY GHOST FESTIVAL. By Darren A. Bryant