When is the Ghost Festival? Do you know these Ghost Festivals?

When is Ghost Festival? Ghost Festival, as the name suggests, is a festival celebrated by ghosts. There are Chinese and foreign ghost festivals. There are four major ghost festivals in China. Next, let’s take a closer look at it.

When is Ghost Festival: China's Four Major Ghost Festivals

Qingming Festival

Time: 15 days after the spring equinox

my country's traditional Qingming Festival began around the Zhou Dynasty and has a history of more than 2,500 years. Qingming was originally a very important solar term. It was a good time for spring ploughing and planting, so there is an agricultural proverb "Plant melons and beans around the Qingming Festival." Later, because Qingming and Cold Food Festival were close to each other, and Cold Food Festival was a day when people were forbidden to use fire and sweep tombs, gradually, Cold Food Festival and Qingming Festival were merged into one. Therefore, during the Qingming Festival, people worship their ancestors and burn gold and silver paper, rice wine, five fruits and other offerings to remember their ancestors and pray for good luck. People are divided into three souls and seven spirits. After death, they may go to hell or be reincarnated, but many souls and spirits remain in the cemetery. Therefore, this is why the older generation of people like to call Qingming Festival the "Ghost Festival".

March 3

Time: March 3rd of the lunar calendar every year. March 3rd was called Shangsi Festival in ancient times. It is said that March 3rd is the birthday of Emperor Huangdi. There is a saying in ancient China that "On February 2nd, the dragon raises its head; on March 3rd, Xuanyuan is born." However, in southern China, the third day of the third lunar month is called Ghost Festival. On the third day of the third lunar month every year, the boundary between yin and yang, life and death becomes loose, and the streets of the underworld are decorated with lights and colorful decorations, and the streets and alleys are crowded with gorgeous ghosts. Therefore, on the night of the third day of the third lunar month, every household sets off firecrackers in every house to scare away ghosts and drive away evil spirits. Moreover, in some ethnic minority areas in Hunan, there is a custom of eating mugwort cakes on March 3rd.

Ghost Festival

Time: The 15th day of the seventh lunar month every year In traditional Chinese folk concepts, the seventh lunar month is mysterious and dark, the gates of hell are wide open, and all ghosts come down from the netherworld to visit relatives, friends, and descendants, or seek offerings, and do not return until the gates of hell are closed at the end of July. As it is a taboo, people seldom choose to hold festive ceremonies such as weddings, house moving or opening in July. The peak of this "Ghost Month" is undoubtedly the "Mid-July" also known as the "Zhongyuan Festival".

October 1st

Time: refers to the first day of the tenth month in the lunar calendar. It is also known as the "October Festival", "Ancestor Worship Festival", "Mingyin Festival", and some people call it the "Ghost Festival". This day, like Qingming Festival and July 15th, is a very important day in the year to commemorate ancestors. At the same time, this day also marks the arrival of severe winter. In the old days, women would sew winter clothes by hand and send them to their relatives far away. If a relative has passed away, people make winter clothes out of paper and burn them at the grave on this day, so it is called the "Cold Clothes Festival."