What is the Zhongyuan Festival? The origin and legend of Zhongyuan Festival

What is the Ghost Festival? The fifteenth day of the seventh lunar month every year is my country's traditional festival "Zhongyuan Festival". Do you know what kind of festival it is? Next, let’s do some scientific research together.

What is the Zhongyuan Festival?

1. The 15th day of the seventh lunar month every year is my country's traditional Zhongyuan Festival, commonly known as the Ghost Festival and the Mid-Autumn Festival, and is called the Yulan Festival in Buddhism. Like New Year's Eve, Qingming Festival and Double Ninth Festival, they are all traditional Chinese festivals for ancestor worship.
2. Legend has it that on the day of the Ghost Festival, all ghosts will be released from the underworld, and people will generally hold activities to worship ghosts. Families that have experienced a new death must visit the new grave as per custom, and usually offer sacrifices to the wandering ghosts in the local area.
3. The 2017 Ghost Festival is on Tuesday, September 5, 2017 (the 15th day of the seventh month of the Dingyou Year (Year of the Rooster))

The Origin and Legend of the Ghost Festival

The Zhongyuan Festival is also called the Yulan Festival, and legend has it that it originated from the story of Mulian saving his mother. The mother of Mulian (Mulian is a Buddhist figure and one of the ten great disciples of Sakyamuni) fell into the realm of hungry ghosts and lived a life of hunger. Mulian was unable to save his mother from her misfortune, so he sought help from the Buddha, who preached the Ullambana Sutra and taught him to prepare the Ullambana Festival on the fifteenth day of the seventh month to save his mother. Following the instructions, Mulian offered precious fruits and vegetarian food to his mother in a Yulan basin on the fifteenth day of the seventh lunar month. The starving mother finally got food. In order to commemorate Mulian’s filial piety, Buddhists hold a grand "Yulanpen Festival" every year, which is what we now call the "Ghost Festival".

What should you pay attention to during the Zhongyuan Festival?

1. Do not quarrel with parents or elders during the Ghost Festival. 2. Do not be unfilial to parents during the Ghost Festival. 3. You must worship your ancestors during the Ghost Festival. 4. Do not laugh during the ancestor worship. 5. Do not laugh at others' ancestor worship. 7. Do not talk about ghosts and gods at will. 8. Do not move house, get married, etc. during the Ghost Festival.