Festivals for the Dead - 鬼節的慶典
The Seventh Full Moon of the Lunar Year
The Chinese Festival For the Dead falls on the full moon of the seventh month in the Chinese lunar-solar calendar. Actually the whole month of the seventh moon in that calendar is dedicated as the "ghost month". It is said that the underworld opens its gate on the first day of that month and closes on the last day of that month. In the meantime, dwellings of the underworld are free to roam our world. It is believed that in this month, major accidents that cause many lives are more likely to happen due to the doings of the underworld beings.On the day of full moon of the seventh month, every household prepares a feast and offers a prayer for the ghosts roaming among us. The feast especially is for ancestors, relatives and loved ones that passed on before us to enjoy when they pay us a visit and also to appeal to malevolent ghosts with the intention to harm to bypass this household.
Each region and trade celebrates this festival a little different from another but all with elaborated and colorful details. Fishermen are know to put lantern boats on water to make peace with those that died at sea or in rivers. Temples often take on the responsibility to pray for those who died without proper burial rituals. Alongside the dangerous roadways, travelers burn paper moneys as peace offerings to those died in traffic accidents.
It is interesting that in the heat of summer when the vitality of life is at its strongest would there be a festival for the dead. The underworld and the dead have extreme element of Yin while the element of Yang, represented by the Sun, the heat and the growth, all can be associated with summer. Perhaps it is exactly because of its strong presence of Yang that summer is chosen as the season for the dead to come back as we need it to counterbalance all the harms the Yin could bring us.
Obon Festival
The Japanese have the Obon Festival, also a festival for the dead, in the July and August time frame. During the festival, bonfires are set outside of homes and lanterns hung everywhere during nighttime to guide spirits back from yonder. Meals are set out in shrines to feed the visiting spirits. On the last day of the festival, paper boats are set on fire on bodies of water, along the coast, on rivers, to carry and guild the visiting spirits back to their yonder world dwellings.Halloween
At the end of summer, Celtics observed Samhein (end of summer) and Catholics, the Eve of the Feast of All Saints, two possible precursors to the popular secular celebration of Halloween. The Celtics especially believed that on Samhein, the other world became visible to mere mortals and that sacrifices were needed to appease gods who might play tricks on humans. The souls of the dead were said to be visiting their previous homes on this day, too. Thus Halloween acquired its dark overtone, dressing-up as witches, fairies and demons, roaming the streets.The exact date of the Halloween, though now fixed on Oct 30, could have happened earlier in October or later in late November in ancient cultures when the lunar calendars were used. It is also said to be the beginning of winter in some other cultures, which brings about winter more than a month earlier than the current onset of winter on the Winter Solstice.
Nowadays Halloween is associated more with the decoration of pumpkins, scarecrows and goblins out on the yards, and a big sack of candies for the little trick-or-treaters. Most trick-or-treaters opt for roles of princesses, cartoon characters or cute animals. The scary and spooky part of ghosts and spirits were played out with a playful tone in forms of haunted houses and costume parties for teens and grown-ups. None of the fear for the unknown is left on this once dark holy day.