What to do during the Ghost Festival, what can and cannot be done
The Zhongyuan Festival, commonly known as the Ghost Festival, is one of China's traditional festivals for ancestor worship, along with New Year's Eve, Qingming Festival and Double Ninth Festival. So, what should we do during the Ghost Festival, what can we do and what can’t we do? Let’s follow the editor to find out! The arrival of the seventh month of the lunar calendar heralds the scorching summer heat is gradually fading away. For more information about the auspiciousness and inauspiciousness of the seventh month of the lunar calendar in 2020, please come to Shuimoxiansheng.com to learn more.What to do during the Ghost Festival:The Zhongyuan Festival is also known as the Ghost Festival, the Mid-Autumn Festival, and the Day of the Dead in some areas. It is one of the three ancient festivals, the Lantern Festival on the 15th day of the first lunar month, to celebrate the Lantern Festival. The Ghost Festival on July 15th is a time to worship ancestors. The Lower Yuan Festival on October 15th is also the Cold Food Festival. The Zhongyuan Festival on July 15th every year, which commemorates ancient sages, is the main traditional festival in my country. It is known as one of the three major ghost festivals in ancient my country, along with the Cold Food Festival and the Qingming Festival. Every year, sacrificial activities are mainly held on the 15th day of the seventh lunar month, but the time is not fixed. In the southern region of my country, people also have the tradition of sacrificing on the 14th day of the seventh lunar month. In some places, the ancestor worship ceremony begins in early July. The ancestors are welcomed back home at night and then offered three meals a day until the end of July.According to legend, on the first day of the seventh lunar month, the gates of hell open wide, and King Yama permits the ghosts in the underworld to return to the world of the living to be worshipped by their descendants, while the lonely ghosts that no one worships will wander around the world looking for food. People believe in ancestor worship and believe that during the Ghost Festival their ancestors will return to their homes on earth to visit their descendants. Therefore, people would worship their ancestors and pray for the souls of the dead during the Ghost Festival. What to do during the Zhongyuan Festival: Ancestor worshipAncestor worship. Folk beliefs believe that ancestors will return home to visit their descendants at this time, so ancestor worship is necessary, but sacrificial activities are generally carried out before the end of July in the lunar calendar and are not limited to a specific day. In some areas, a certain ceremony is held to welcome the ancestral souls back home at night. Tea and food are offered three times a day, in the morning, noon and evening, until the 30th day of the seventh month. When sending the deceased back, paper money and clothes are burned, which is called burning "baoyi", or it is a Buddhist or Taoist ritual for the salvation of the souls. In some areas of Jiangxi and Hunan, the Ghost Festival is a more important day for ancestor worship than Qingming Festival or Double Ninth Festival.What not to do during the Ghost Festival:1. When you go out at night, it is not advisable to call out your full name, so as to avoid ghosts remembering your name.2. Do not wear clothes with your name embroidered on them to avoid being possessed by your spirit. 3. Avoid going to remote areas or places at night. 4. Don’t pat others on the shoulders. 5. Don’t whistle. The sounds of whistles and bells are the same to the ghost brothers, and when they hear such sounds they usually think that their companions are calling them. 6. Do not play in dangerous waters. According to legend, "water ghosts" will look for people to be scapegoats so that they can be reincarnated. 7. Do not steal the offerings for worship. If you compete with ghosts for food, you may suffer misfortune. 8. Don’t pick up money on the roadside. This money is used to bribe the Ox-Head and Horse-Face. If you infringe on their things, you will easily be taught a lesson by them. 9. When passing by a funeral site, you must not have any disrespectful thoughts or words in your mind. 10. Avoid stepping on or burning ghost paper randomly. Ghost paper is a sacrifice to ghosts. When it is burned, ghosts will gather nearby to pick it up. If you step on or jump around while burning ghost paper, it will hinder their movements. The ghosts will be angry and will naturally do something bad to you. 11. It is best not to take random photos at night. This action can easily include friends from the spirit world in the photo and then bring them home. It is even more dangerous to take selfies in front of a mirror at home on Ghost Festival, because there is a high possibility that the ghost brothers will come out of the mirror. 12. Don’t lean against the wall. Good brothers usually like to rest on the cold wall, which can easily attract ghosts. 13. Insert the chopsticks in the center of the rice. This is a form of worship, just like putting incense in an incense burner. This will only attract ghosts to share food with you. 14. When sleeping at night, the toes of your shoes should not face the bed. A good brother will look at the direction of the shoe toe to determine where the stranger is. If the shoe toe is facing the head of the bed, then the good brother will go to bed and sleep with you. 15. Avoid sleeping with disheveled hair. During the Ghost Month, there are wandering ghosts everywhere. If you have disheveled hair, be careful that they may mistake you for one of their own and try to get you up to chat. |
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