Ghost Festivals
Halloween
The pumpkins, the scarecrows and the goblins are out on the yards in our neighborhood. Time to get a big sack of candies or two for the little trick-or-treaters knocking on your doors when the sun goes down on October 30. Contrary to what you might imagine, Halloween is not concocted by the candy industry. They took advantage of it and promoted the candy giving part for sure. Halloween goes way back, observed in different cultures: as Eve of the Feast of All Saints by Catholics, as Samhein (end of summer) and New Year's Eve long ago by Celtics.
The Celtics 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 and fearsome overtone and hence the dress-up as witches, fairies and demons and parading through the neighborhood of homes came about. The Irish immigrants into this country were said to have influenced on the trick-or-treat part of the tradition. They were known to have played pranks on people on Halloween in the late 19th century.
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 (Dec 21 mostly).
The Seventh Full Moon of the Lunar Year
Chinese has a festival for ghosts, too. It falls on the fifteenth day of the seventh month in the lunar calendar. Actually the whole month of the seventh month in the lunar 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 offer a prayer for the ghosts roaming among us for fear that those loved ones that passed on before us would starve when they pay us a visit and also to appeal to malevolent ghosts with the intention to harm to bypass this household. The custom is very much influenced by the Taoist practice to pay respect to our ancestors on this day.
The underworld part is probably influenced by several sources: First, some Taoists as well as Buddhists believe in the purgatory underworld as a means of punishment for our sins in this lifetime, thus we fear the underworld. Secondly, the belief of reincarnation in Buddhism is that our current lifetime is an opportunity for redemption into a higher life form in our next life, thus we pray for and feed the lost souls from the underworld. Thirdly, the folklore of a monk who searched the underworld for his mother and practiced good deeds to redeem his mother from the underworld. It is said that the monk in the story gained access to the underworld in the seventh lunar month, thus the belief in the opening and closing of the underworld in the seventh lunar month as well as the practices of the prayer and the feast came about.