What are the activities of the Zhongyuan Festival? It is not only a day to worship ghosts and gods.

What activities are there during the Ghost Festival? The Ghost Festival is a day for worshiping ghosts and gods, and is also one of China's traditional festivals. Do you know how the ancients celebrated the Ghost Festival? Let’s take a quick look.

What activities are there during the Zhongyuan Festival?

Ancestor worship

The Zhongyuan Festival is a Taoist term. The name "Zhongyuan" originated in the Northern Wei Dynasty. In some places, it is commonly known as "Ghost Festival", "Shigu", and also called "Mid-July" for ancestor worship. People believe that their ancestors will return home to visit their descendants at this time, so they need to worship their ancestors. The worship ceremony is usually held in the evening before the end of July, and there is no regulation on the specific time.

Release river lanterns

Releasing river lanterns is also known as releasing lotus lanterns. The purpose of releasing river lanterns on the night of the Ghost Festival is to save drowned ghosts and other wandering ghosts in the water. During the Ghost Festival, people would place it in rivers, lakes and seas and let it drift. Releasing river lanterns is also a Chinese folk sacrificial and religious activity used to mourn deceased relatives and to bless the living.

Release sky lanterns

Sky lanterns are also called Kongming lanterns, commonly known as wishing lanterns, and also called prayer lanterns. There are two theories about releasing sky lanterns on the Ghost Festival. One is to release the ghosts from your home with sky lanterns to take away bad luck, and the higher they fly, the better. The second theory is that it is a way of mourning for deceased relatives and to illuminate the way for ancestors who are preparing to ascend to paradise in the underworld.

Burning paper

The custom of burning paper bundles during the Ghost Festival is mainly popular in Sichuan and evolved from burning paper money. People burn paper money on the 13th day of the seventh lunar month (Zhongyuan Festival) when they worship their ancestors or when they commemorate the dead on ordinary days. The intention is to send money to the spirits of the ancestors so that they will have money to use in the underworld and can better bless us.

Burning Street Clothes

Burning street clothes is a folk custom that has been preserved to this day. Every year around the Ghost Festival, people will bring incense, candles, gold and silver paper and some offerings such as tofu and rice to worship on the roadside after dark. The purpose is to provide those helpless souls with clothes to keep warm and food to fill their stomachs.

Worship the Land

The origin of the Zhongyuan Festival is related to the popular land ancestor worship in ancient China. Therefore, according to folk custom, in addition to worshiping ancestors, they also offer sacrifices such as new rice, burn incense to report the autumn harvest to the ancestors, and insert incense sticks into the ground. This is called "Bu Tian" (transplanting rice seedlings). The more you plant, the better, which symbolizes a good harvest of rice in autumn.