Hungry Ghost Festival

Hungry Ghost Festival, frightening and festive Buddhist and Daoist holiday celebrated in East Asia and Southeast Asia, particularly in areas with Chinese cultural influence, to propitiate the ghosts of the deceased. The holiday is celebrated on the 15th day of the 7th month on the Chinese lunar calendar, falling in July or August on the Gregorian calendar. The Hungry Ghost Festival, and local variations thereof, draws on both Buddhist and Daoist beliefs in the existence of ghosts deemed to be in need of honor and appeasement, and the meaning of the festival takes on somewhat different shades depending on interpretations from the different religious traditions, although practices are generally quite similar. It is sometimes known as the Yulanpen or Ullambana festival in reference to the Buddhist Yulanpen (Ullambana) Sutra that tells the holiday’s foundational ghost story. The holiday is observed with offerings to the ghosts along with lantern lighting and cultural festivities. Often breezily compared to Halloween, the Roman Catholic holiday All Souls’ Day, or the Mexican holiday Day of the Dead, this haunting holiday has its own unique background, beliefs, practices, and regional variations.

Ullambana and hungry ghosts in Buddhism

Imagined and often illustrated as frightening beings with protruding stomachs and tiny mouths who are always ravenous, invisible hungry ghosts (Sanskrit: pretas; Chinese: e gui), according to Buddhist belief, sometimes haunt the human realm. In Chinese culture, they are thought to do so particularly during the seventh month of the year. Of the six realms or statuses into which rebirth can occur in the Buddhist cycle of samsara (continual rebirth), the hungry ghost realm is particularly gruesome, and rebirth there would be the result of some rather negative karma in need of being worked off. The ghosts’ continual attachment—itself the cause of suffering, according to Buddhist thought—to earthly life brings them back to haunt the living.

A famous hungry ghost story that establishes the origin of the festival is told in the Mahayana Chinese Buddhist Yulanpen Sutra (also called the Ullambana Sutra), which is claimed to have been translated into Chinese from Indian sources in the 3rd or 4th century ce. In the tale, Maudgalyayana (Pali: Moggallana; Chinese: Mulian) was an accomplished disciple of the Buddha who had obtained the ability to perceive everything in the universe. He saw that his late mother had been reborn as a hungry ghost. Distraught and consumed with pity, he brought her a bowl of food. But she was unable to consume it. Maudgalyayana went to the Buddha for advice. The Buddha said that for such attempts at rescuing the deceased who are suffering greatly, the whole sangha (the Buddhist community of monastics and laity) would need to come together. It just so happened that the Pravarana Day, a holiday that marks the end of the three-month rains retreat (vassa), would be such a time of monastic assemblage. Thus the Buddha established a holiday to be observed on the 15th day of the 7th month, during which devotees would convene to offer food, incense, lanterns, and other good things, along with mantras and vows, in order to free the deceased from suffering.

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The offerings to the ghosts on this holiday, as explained in the text, are considered as a means to transfer merit (punya) to the deceased to alleviate their suffering and help them escape their condition more expeditiously. The offerings also serve as a display of filial piety, a distinctly Confucian ethical value of devotion to the family that is explicitly called out as the significance of the Yulanpen Sutra. There is speculation that the Yulanpen Sutra originated as a way of combining Chinese values of filial piety with Buddhist belief during the transmission of Buddhism to China, although earlier shadows of the tale, and the importance of feeding hungry ghost relatives, do exist in earlier South Asian sources. A similar story of a suffering hungry ghost and mother in a past life who is aided by her Buddhist monk son is recounted in the Petavatthu (Pali: “Ghost Stories”) section of the South Asian-composed Khuddaka Nikaya, a canonical Buddhist text that dates to approximately the 3rd century bce. However, that earlier text does not establish a holiday nor does it define the offering to ghosts explicitly in terms of the Chinese notion of filial piety. Based on the Yulanpen Sutra story, this holiday is called Yulanpen Jie or Ullambana festival among Buddhists. There is evidence of it having been observed in China since 538 ce.

Zhongyuan and ghost month in Daoism

The association of the seventh month with ancestors might predate the transmission of Buddhism into China, however the question of how the Daoist and Buddhist strands influenced each other, and which aspects of the Hungry Ghost Festival preceded the other, remains obscure. It is likely that the two strands mutually influenced each other over time. The holiday among Daoists is called Zhongyuan Jie (Middle Element Festival). In Daoist thought, there are three divine officials, called the Sanguan, of three realms: upper, middle, and lower. The middle realm, that of the earth, is called zhongyuan (“middle element”), and its ruler is Diguan (also called Qingxu) whose birthday is said to fall on the 15th day of the 7th month, hence giving the holiday its name. On Diguan’s birthday, he is said to come to earth to judge good and bad deeds of the living.

However, despite his association with the festival’s Daoist name, it is not Diguan who is most significant for festive activities. Rather, it is the ghosts (Chinese: gui) who, according to Daoist thought and also drawing on Chinese folk traditions, are let out of the gates of the underworld to roam the earth during the seventh month. Ghosts of ancestors are welcomed as guests who have returned for a pleasant visit, but also thought to be on the loose are plenty of fearful ghosts, often of people who died in an unfortunate manner or who do not have relatives to tend to them. Celebrants endeavor to ward off these more malicious ghosts to prevent the harm they may cause the living.

Feeding and fearing the ghosts

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There are a number of offerings Hungry Ghost Festival observers provide to host the ghosts. Of course, as implied by their name, the hungry ghosts need and want to be fed, so celebrants leave out plenty of bowls of food for the ghosts to consume. Food is prepared for them three times a day, and some families will leave an empty spot at the meal table for friendly relative ghosts to join. It is also thought that the ghosts need money to function both in the afterlife and in the earthly realm, so paper money, often called joss (“idol” or “statue”) paper or spirit money, is burned, which is a practice performed for many Chinese funeral rituals with the idea that the incineration of the money transfers it from the earthly world to the spirit realm. In some instances, large paper boats filled with offerings of symbols of wealth are set ablaze. Additionally, paper handicrafts in the forms of everything from popular foods such as dim sum and noodles to luxury items such as iPhones and houses are burned to give the ghosts things they might enjoy. Joss sticks (incense) are also lit as offerings. Buddhist monks and Daoist priests are also employed for various ritual incantations to ward off ghosts. Throughout the festival, cultural performances such as traditional Chinese operas are also staged for the enjoyment of both the living and the dead. Costumed parades are also included in the public festivities. A visually stunning part of the ceremony occurs when celebrants light lanterns at night and set them out on the water. The practice is meant to guide the spirits to the underworld. The first, 15th, and last day of the month are considered the highlights of the festival, and there is variation concerning precisely on which date certain rites are performed, such as when joss money is to be incinerated or when the guiding lanterns should be set afloat.

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With all the malicious ghosts roaming about, it is thought that great care must be taken at this time. The seventh month is considered inauspicious for such events as weddings or moving houses. Swimming is prohibited because there could be water ghosts and drowning is a particularly unfortunate way to go. Wearing red or black is advised against since ghosts are attracted to those colors. Laundry should not be left to dry overnight since ghosts could get caught in it. People, especially children, are advised to be inside before dark to avoid harm. And if you hear your name called late at night, do not turn around: it could be a ghost playing a trick!

Related ghost festivals in Asia

The Hungry Ghost Festival has spread throughout Asia and taken on new forms. In Japan the festival is called Obon, a shortened form of Urabon, which some scholars think is a translation of Ullambana. According to the Japanese interpretation of the festival, when the mother of Maudgalyayana (Japanese: Mokuren) was released from her suffering, the monk joyfully danced. Hence the festival in Japan prominently features a special Bon dance. Celebrants take a break from work and visit relatives at the same time as the ancestral spirits, too, visit their families during the festival from the 13th to 15th of days of the month. Colorful lanterns are lit to welcome the ghosts back to earth and to bid them farewell at the end of the festival.

In Vietnam Ullambana turns into Vu Lan, and the festival highlights respect for parents, living and dead. Chinese people in Malaysia also propitiate and burn in effigy the god Dashiye, who, according to Chinese thought, is the ruler of the underworld and tries to keep the ghosts from getting out of line while they roam the earth. In Hakka communities in Taiwan, giant pigs raised to be more than 1,500 pounds (680 kg) are showcased and feasted upon for the holiday. For Chinese communities in Phuket, Thailand, who call the festival Por Tor, prominently featured are red cakes in the shape of turtles.