RELAX
By Farhan Shah
Also known as Yu Lan, the WHERE DID IT START?
WHO IS THE FIRST
While the historical beginnings
HUNGRY GHOST?
Hungry Ghost Festival is
There are many stories of the origins
celebrated in the seventh of the Hungry Ghost Festival is
of hungry ghosts, most of it from an
somewhat intermingled with myths
month of the Chinese and folklore, most historians are
early third-century book titled Sutra
calendar. To put that into the of the consensus that the Ghost
of One Hundred Selected Legends. It
Gregorian calendar context, Festival originated with the canonical usually revolves around a kind man, a
the Festival is happening on scriptures of Buddhism and has been monk and a greedy women although
there have been other stories
blended with different aspects of the
10 August 2014 and will last ceremonies present in Chinese folk involving unkindness.
for a month! We break down religion and other local traditions.
“A rich man who travels around the
this traditional Chinese
country selling sugar cane juice was
Interestingly, the Chinese community
event for you.
The
ungry
H
Ghost
Festival
is not the only one to have a festival
celebrating the annual opening of
the gates of Hell. In Cambodia, the
Pchum Ben 15-day festival also has
references to the gates of Hell and
food offerings to the dead.
SO, WHAT EXACTLY
HAPPENS DURING
THE HUNGRY GHOST
FESTIVAL?
The Hungry Ghost Festival falls at the
same time as a full moon and the start
of the fall harvest. At this time, the
gates of hell are opened up and the
hungry ghosts are free to roam the
earth to seek food and entertainment.
Contrary to its name, the hungry
ghost isn’t actually a famished
supernatural being! Rather, a
hungry ghost is an unfortunate
ghost – in many Chinese-based
religions, they believe that all
people become regular ghosts when
they die and would slowly weaken
and eventually die a second time.
A hungry ghost is believed to come
about if the whole family is killed,
when the family no longer venerates
its ancestors, if their deaths are
violent or unhappy or if the person
commits evil deeds such as killing,
stealing and sexual misconduct.
A hungry ghost usually has a long, thin
neck because he or she has not been
fed by the family.
resting at home when a monk come
to the house looking for some juice
to cure an illness. The man had to
leave, so he told his wife to give the
monk a drink in his absence. Instead
of doing that, she secretly urinated
in the monk’s bowl and then poured
sugarcane juice into it. The monk was
not deceived, pouring out the contents
of the bowl and leaving the house.
When the wife died, she was reborn as
a hungry ghost.”
“Once, there was five hundred men
who were sons of elders of the city
they lived in. When monks came into
the city begging for food, the sons
denied them because they thought the
monks would keep coming back and
eventually take all of their food. After
all the sons died, they were reborn as
hungry ghosts.”
ARE THERE DIFFERENT
TYPES OF SPIRITS THAT
WANDER AROUND
DURING THIS MONTH?
Yes, according to the Chinese, there
is! There are two types of ghosts,
detailed below:
1
E gui (饿鬼)
Literally meaning hungry
ghost, the e gui are the people
who committed sins out of greed
when they were alive and are now
condemned to suffer in hunger after
death. Their mouth is too small to
consume food and their skin is green
or grey. They also occasionally sport
a potbelly. The e gui suffer from
insatiable hunger and haunts the
streets and kitchens in search of
offerings and decomposed food. They
literally consume anything, including
excreted waste and rotten flesh.
2
You hun ye gui (游魂野鬼)
The e gui are a subset of the you
hun ye gui, which means wandering
spirits of the dead. The other ghosts
in this group include vengeful
spirits seeking revenge and playful
supernatural beings who are just
looking to have fun and cause trouble.
Some of these spirits have no living
relatives or have no resting place,
while others are unable to return
to the underworld in time, so they
continue to roam the world of the
living after the Hungry Ghost Festival.
22
Family & Life • Aug 2014