What is the Ghost Festival? A comprehensive review of the Ghost Festival customs in different regions

What are the customs of Ghost Festival? The fifteenth day of the seventh lunar month is the Chinese folk custom of the "Zhongyuan Festival", also known as the "Ghost Festival". On the Ghost Festival, every place has its own folk customs and etiquette. Let’s take a look.

What is the meaning of Ghost Festival?

Guangdong

In Guangdong, there are two aspects of ancestor worship during the Ghost Festival: on the one hand, burning incense, making offerings and bowing to ancestors at home or in ancestral halls; on the other hand, visiting graves and paying homage to ancestors. In addition to worshipping ancestors, sacrifices are also offered to wild ghosts and lonely souls.

Jiangnan Region

On the Ghost Festival, villagers in the Jiangnan region wear traditional costumes and go to ancestor worship sites to participate in traditional ceremonies. In rural areas, every household will prepare offerings early and go to the village land temple to burn incense. It is said that this will bless the family with safety and a good harvest this year. That kind of pious heart is to pray for peace and harvest, simple and beautiful.

Hunan region

In the Hunan region, since the beginning of July, various kinds of offerings can be seen in cities and towns in Hunan, including ghost money, ghost clothes, spirit houses, incense sticks and firecrackers. Starting from the tenth day, every household will clean the hall, place an incense table and ancestral tablets in front of the shrine, and prepare wine and food for offerings throughout the day to welcome the ancestors.

Henan Province

In Henan Province, people hang paper flags at the door of sacrificial places, which is said to repel insects. In some places, people fly kites on the Ghost Festival. In Yi County, people draw an ash circle in front of the door on July 15 and burn paper gods inside the circle to worship their ancestors.

Zhejiang region

Jiashan County regards rain on the Ghost Festival as a sign of a good rice harvest. People in Tonglu County ring gongs and scatter rice on the wild on the evening of the Ghost Festival, which is called "feeding the hungry ghosts." During the Ullambana Festival in eastern Zhejiang, 24 old ladies are invited to “walk the eight knots” while chanting sutras. In Tiantai, people eat "dumplings" during the Ghost Festival. The dumplings are similar to spring rolls.

Shandong area

In Shandong Province, the custom of worshipping ancestors on the Ghost Festival is quite common. People usually bring offerings to the graves to worship their ancestors in the afternoon. The offerings in Shan County are particularly rich, including a bamboo Yulan basin, clothes and hats made of Shandong paper, and a table of vegetarian food. The people in Zibo invite their ancestors to their homes for worship. Every family sticks ears of grain on the top of the gate. It is said that the grains represent horses, and after the worship is over, the ancestors can ride on the horses and go back.