Ghost Festival is a popular traditional festival in China and Western countries. In Western countries, the Ghost Festival is called Halloween, on November 1st each year, while the Chinese Ghost Festival is on the fifteenth day of the seventh lunar month, which is also called Zhongyuan Festival, Obon Festival and Half of July. On August 22, 2021 is China's Ghost Festival, so what are the customs of China's Ghost Festival?

The Mid-Yuan Festival, that is, the ancestor worship festival in July and a half, the festival customs mainly include ancestor worship, river lanterns, paper burning, and sacrifices to dead souls. The Zhongyuan Festival evolved from the "July and a half" farming harvest in the ancient times. July and a half is a folk festival in early autumn to celebrate a good harvest and reward the earth. There are a number of crops that are mature. The folks are required to worship their ancestors and use new rice and other sacrifices. It is a traditional cultural festival that remembers the ancestors.

The customs of Zhongyuan Festival

1. Put river lights

River lanterns are also called "lotus lanterns." River lanterns are generally placed on the base of lamps or candles. Zhongyuan nights are placed in the rivers, lakes, and seas, allowing them to float. The purpose of setting the river lantern is to purify the drowning ghosts and other lonely wild ghosts in the water. Lights on the river, especially in the Yellow River is spectacular.

2. Burn street clothes

This is a folk custom that has been preserved in Hong Kong since its opening as a port. When entering the seventh month of the lunar calendar, people will bring incense candles, gold and silver cloth paper and some sacrifices such as tofu and rice to worship on the roadside after entering the dark. The purpose of people "burning street clothes" is to let those helpless lone souls have clothing to keep out the cold and food to wrap their stomachs.

3. Burnt paper

In Sichuan Province, it is customary to burn furoshiki with Zhongyuan to worship ancestors. That is to say, a stack of paper money is sealed into small envelopes, with the title and name of the recipient, the number of envelopes received, and the name and time of the recipient. According to popular legend, the gate of ghosts will be closed on July 15 and every family will "give off their children."

4. Pray for a good harvest

Offering sacrifices to the lonely soul and praying for a good harvest are often associated with each other on the Mid-Year Festival. On the night of Shigu, every household must burn incense at their door to pray for a good harvest of rice, and plant the incense sticks on the ground. This is called "butian" (planting rice seedlings).

5. Eat duck

On the fifteenth day of the Lunar New Year, many places across the country choose to eat ducks. Why? It turns out that "duck" means "squeeze," whichever is a homonym, eating ducks is to suppress ghosts. People in Dongguan generally eat duck in pot with lotus root. In Duling County, Shandong, the Mid-Year Festival is called the "Pinch Mouth Festival" by the locals, and every family has the custom of eating coarse tea and light rice. In Dongxian Township, Jiangsu Province, many villagers eat flat food (a dustpan-shaped food made of flour and sugar) on the day of the Lunar New Year. On the rooftop of Taizhou City, Zhejiang Province, they would eat "dumplings", a food similar to spring rolls, on Chinese New Year's Day.

6, Worship ancestors

The ancestor worship festival is on the fifteenth day of the seventh lunar month, so it is abbreviated as "July and a half" ancestor worship. People believe that ancestors will also return home to visit their children and grandchildren at this time, so ancestor worship is required. The worship ceremony is generally held in the evening before the end of July and is not limited to a specific day.

7. Sacrifice to the land and crops

On July 15th, folk sacrifices to land and crops are also popular. Sprinkle the offerings into the field. After burning the paper, use the five-color paper cut into shreds and wrap it around the ears of the crops. Legend has it that you can avoid hail attacks and get a bumper harvest in autumn. Some places also go to Houtu Temple for offering sacrifices at the same time. The folk custom of Dingxiang County hangs Ma and Valley at the front of the gate.

8. Burning sky lanterns

There are also two ways of putting sky lanterns on this day of the Ghost Festival. One is to use sky lanterns to release your own little ghosts to take away bad luck. The farther you can take, the better, so that these little ghosts will never come back. At this time, it is very taboo that the sky lanterns of other people's homes fall in their own homes. If they fall, they must be released again. The second is that every family hopes that their deceased ancestors can enter the world of bliss. The sky lanterns on the Ghost Festival are to illuminate the way to heaven for the ancestors who are preparing to ascend to the world of bliss in the underworld.