What does the Ghost Festival mean? The Origin of Ghost Festival

What does the Ghost Festival mean? The Origin of Ghost Festival
Different festivals have different meanings. So, let’s take a look at what the Ghost Festival means. An introduction to the origin of the Ghost Festival. The arrival of the seventh month of the lunar calendar indicates that the scorching summer heat is gradually fading away, and the heat is gradually subsiding. For more information about the auspiciousness and inauspiciousness of the seventh month of the lunar calendar in 2021, please come to Shuimo.com to learn about it.

What does the Ghost Festival mean?

The Zhongyuan Festival is a Taoist festival. It is also known as the Ghost Festival, the Mid-Autumn Festival, and the Day of the Dead in a few areas.
The Zhongyuan Festival mainly holds sacrificial activities on the 15th day of the seventh lunar month, but the date of the Zhongyuan Festival is not actually fixed.
For example, in the southern region of our country, there is a custom of starting sacrifices on July 14th. In some areas of our country, the ceremony of ancestor worship begins in early July. The ancestors are welcomed back home at night and then offered three meals a day until the end of July.
The "Mid-July Festival" was originally a folk festival for ancestor worship in ancient times, and it was called the "Zhongyuan Festival" because of the Taoist saying after the Eastern Han Dynasty. Taoism has the "Three Yuan Theory", "The Heaven Official bestows blessings in the Shangyuan, the Earth Official forgives sins in the Zhongyuan, and the Water Official relieves disasters in the Xiayuan. The name "Zhongyuan" comes from this. Buddhism calls the 15th day of July the "Yulanpen Festival". In the Tang Dynasty, when the rulers admired Taoism, the Taoist Zhongyuan Festival began to flourish, and gradually "Zhongyuan" was fixed as the name of the festival. The festival was set on July 15 and has been passed down to this day.

The Origin of Ghost Festival

The name "Zhongyuan" originated in the Northern Wei Dynasty. Zhongyuan Festival is also known as "Ghost Festival" or "Menlan Basin Festival". According to Wu Za Zu, “Taoist scriptures regard the 15th day of the first lunar month as the Shang Yuan Festival, the 15th day of the seventh lunar month as the Zhong Yuan Festival, and the 15th day of the tenth lunar month as the Xia Yuan Festival.” Xiu Xiu Ji says, “On the Zhong Yuan Festival in the seventh lunar month, the Earth God descends to determine the good and evil deeds of the human world. Taoists recite scriptures that night, and prisoners on the Hungry Festival are freed.”
Buddhism also holds a ceremony for the salvation of the dead on this day, called "Ulama" or "Menlanhui". The meaning of Menglanpen is hanging upside down. The pain of life is like a bat hanging upside down on a tree, hanging there and suffering unspeakably. In order to save all living beings from the suffering of hanging upside down, it is necessary to chant scriptures and distribute food to wandering ghosts.
This practice coincided with China's Ghost Month worship, and thus the Zhongyuan Festival and the Menglan Festival were passed down at the same time.

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