Hungry Ghost Festival Celebrates The Dead

Many East and Southeast Asian countries celebrate the Hungry Ghost Festival, which falls on the fifteenth day of the lunar calendar’s seventh month. It is unique and significant because it is celebrated in Asian heritage to celebrate the lost souls and to worship the dead. This day is a time honored tradition in Buddhist and Taoist culture. This festival is the day where ghosts whose family has forgotten about them roam at night looking for food to eat. During this day, the ghosts are to be celebrated, and it is believed that wandering spirits (hungry ghosts) return to the world of the living. Communities return to harmony with the spiritual world, as believed  in the Buddhist and Taoist traditions, by burning incense, offering food and honoring the spirits through traditional operas. This way, they also maintain human boundaries in a harmonic spiritual world.

How did they become a hungry ghost? A hungry ghost, also known as a preta, becomes a ghost by being reborn in this state due to excessive greed, desire or other negative karma from a past life. It often comes from refusing to share with the needy, hoarding problems or living a life consumed by selfish desires and dissatisfaction. These hungry ghost creatures have enormous bellies and tiny mouths, symbolizing how their greed is immense, but their ability to satisfy it is nonexistent.

This festival originated during the Chinese Tang Dynasty. According to mythology, the gates of the underworld are said to open, allowing souls to wander the human world. To ward off bad luck, families pay their respects by offering food, burning joss paper (fake money) and holding group prayers with three incense burners to guide the lost souls so they can eat and wander in the streets. Today, countries such as China, Singapore, Malaysia and Vietnam celebrate the festival culturally and religiously while prioritizing remembrance, respect and gratitude towards one’s ancestors.

The festival is rooted in the tale of Maudgalayana, who was an accomplished follower of the Buddha who obtained the ability to perceive everything in the universe. The first thing he saw was his late mother reborn as a hungry ghost who was suffering from extreme hunger. Devastated, distraught and  consumed with pity, he had brought her a bowl of food, but she was unable  to consume it. Maudgalayana then went to Buddha for advice. Buddha had said, “For such attempts at rescuing the deceased who are suffering greatly, the whole sangha (a community of Buddhist, monks, nuns and followers) would need to come together.”

While the Hungry Ghost Festival remains quite significant in shaping each community's relationship with cultural roots over the ages, a few older practices such as burning offerings and street operas, however, have been modified by younger generations to fit modern sensibility. Now, large-scale celebrations are publicly organized mainly by temples and community associations. In the urban context, giving digital offerings and creating online memorials have now been embraced, as well.  A digital offering is where you choose to “burn” your offerings online if you can not burn them in person for your ancestors to use in the afterlife. The festival, however, is still principally about remembering the ancestors, the importance of family ties and the balance between the spiritual and the physical worlds, no matter how modern the practices get.

The Hungry Ghost festival is the time to celebrate the spirits of the ancestors. The living offer food and incense at the banquet. It is a time of offering kindness, ancestral reverence and a harmonious spirit of the culture. It is a time to modernize and link the traditions to today’s society.  The festival is a combination of deep-rooted respect for Buddhism and Taoism, ancestors and the unseen world. Families light candles, burn offerings, and share food with the spirits.

These festivals’ teachings, centered on appreciation and respect, remain relevant today. Will the sacred values of these traditions be upheld in the future, though?

Photos from Chinese Culture Center | Hungry Ghost Festival celebrated at Chinatown