August 31st, which is also July 14th on lunar calendar is a traditional Chinese festival - Zhongyuan Festival, one of the four Ghost Festivals (GF) in China. The other three are March 3rd, Qingming Festival and Octorber 1st (all in lunar calendars). In these days, the door to the underworld is open and ghosts can come back to the earth and wander like human beings.
According to old legends in Taoism and Buddism, ghosts leave the underworld at night. They dress like normal people, and especially enjoy walking around night markets after long and lonely days in the netherworld. That night, ghosts can lead normal people's lives - they bargain with street vendors, play games, buy snacks and drink alcohol, except that you can't find their shadows in the streetlight. And if you happen to join them in drinking, you may want to watch out not to go back to the underworld with them at daybreak in drunkenness. That's why sometimes people set off firecrackers to scare away ghosts, making sure they're drinking with their fellow humans. Children and women are warned not to stay outside too late as they are more vulnerable to be attacked by ghosts. Another custom is to offer sacrifices and burn paper-made notes (currency in the underworld banks) to ancestors, as they will visit their descendants that day and it's our responsibilities to serve them something nice, and assure them good lives in another world. Also, people believe that in the gloomy underwater world lies the bridge to the hell and most ghosts can be found in rivers or lakes. Thus they also go to riverside and put lanterns on the water with candles lit inside as a way to comfort wandering souls and to wish them better lives after reincarnation.
People in other countries also wonder about afterlives and show their respects for deaths. In Japan, people celebrate Obon Festival in mid August. Obon originated in India as a Buddhist festival to expiate sins of the deaths. It spread to Japan through China and became the second biggest festival in Japan. The entire vacation lasts about 7-15 days, people reunite with their families and visit ancestors' graves together. Obon Festival is when Yama, the king of the underworld, goes on vacations. Therefore the unshackled ghosts are released to the world and many of them choose to visit where they used to live - I mean, the earth. During the Obon Festival, people dance in Yukata, holding memorial ceremonies for the death and praying for good fortunes in the coming year. Similarly, Japanese also believe that their ancestors will visit them during the festival, thus they hang lanterns in front of houses to show ancestors the way. In the fiction I'm reading recently about Abenoseimei, a famous Onmyoji in Heian Era, people in Japan used to sit together in Obon Festival and take turns to tell ghost stories. As one finished his story, he blew out the candle in front of him. After all the candles went out, it was the time for ghosts' parade (Hyakki Yakou百鬼夜行). The earth was occupied by ghosts who lived and talked like human beings. Everything came back to normal after the dawn, but people had to carefully avoid coming across ghosts at night.
The Halloween in the US and other western countries is quite different in the way of respecting the deaths, maybe due to the difference in religions. Both Zhongyuan and Obon are meant for families to memorize ancestors while Halloween is more like a ghost version of Disneyland for kids. (Well you know better than me.) I must admit I was really surprised to see how happy people are in a ghost festival when I saw kids in costumes running around with jack-o'-lanterns and candy bags during my first Halloween in the US in 2009.
At the end of the blog, I'd like to list a few taboos for tomorrow (Zhongyuan Festival):
- Don't burn large bills (I mean "paper-made notes") only, as ancestors may come back for changes;
- Don't hang wind chimes above the bed, they may attract ghosts to your bedroom;
- Don't leave your clothes outside as they may be "borrowed" by ghosts;
- Don't stay up late, you may see too much;
- Don't pick up money on the road, it may be left for bribing officials in the underworld (corruption is everywhere);
- Don't call your friends by full name, it may be heard by some wandering souls.
No comments:
Post a Comment