The Chinese Ghost Festival Explained
ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 23 ส.ค. 2023
- Compare news coverage. Spot media bias. Avoid algorithms. Be well informed. Download the free Ground News app at ground.news/religionforbreakfast
Join our Patreon community!: / religionforbreakfast
One-time donations here!: www.paypal.me/religionforbrea...
Check out my favorite religious studies books by following this affiliate link to my Amazon page: www.amazon.com/shop/religionf...
The Hungry Ghost Festival in China is held on the 15th night of the seventh lunar month. It's a time when it's believed that restless ghosts roam the earth. During this festival, people pay homage to these deceased ancestors and other wandering spirits, seeking to appease them. Families often prepare offerings of food and drink, and make ritualized items such as joss paper (hell money) and incense to honor the departed souls. These offerings are meant to satisfy the 'hungry ghosts,' preventing them from bringing misfortune to the living. Performances, including opera and puppet shows, are held to entertain both the living and the spiritual guests.
Bibliography:
Stephen Teiser, "The Ghost Festival in Medieval China," 1988.
Mu-Chou Poo, "Ghosts and Religious Life in Early China," 2022.
Ingmar Heise, "For Buddhas, families, and ghosts: the transformations of the Ghost Festival into a Dharma Assembly in southeast China," in "Buddhist Funeral Cultures of Southeast Asia and China," 2012.
Hong Yin Chan, "The Hungry Ghost Festival in Singapore: Getai (Songs on Stage) in the Lunar Seventh Month," Religions 2020. 11(7), 356.
Select footage and images courtesy of Getty
Compare news coverage from diverse sources around the world on a transparent platform driven by data. Try Ground News today: ground.news/religionforbreakfast
Unfortunately, they only take credid cards.
This is so needed for those of us wanting unbiased news! Thanks for sharing!
@@namidakoh1027its mostly politics
One of the most useful sponsors I've seen for today's audience.
That’s why most people in Scandinavia celebrate Christmas. It’s part of the culture and it’s fun. You don’t have to be religious to enjoy it.
My father, an atheist through and through, nevertheless honored the ancestors. He would say ' we do it because it's our culture and tradition.'
Only people who keep culture and tradition will have them
Like my Jewish friends 😁
Many religions don't care what you believe. Abrahamic religions emphasize what you believe.
But some religions are focused on what you do. Especially what you do together with other people.
Social connection can be a major component of religion, and it may be the part of religion that leads to longer lifespan.
We tend to think all religions are like certain types of modern western religion.
For example, if someone says they're doing a ritual because of social reasons, we interpret that as being "not actually religion." But if you're doing a ritual, you're probably practicing a religion.
It's ok, "religion" doesn't have to be a bad word.
Not all followers of abrahamic religions define their religion by belief. Many Jews define it by their rituals. Many Christians define it by how they help others
@@langreeves6419 Christianity emphatically defines itself by belief and emphatically excludes non-believers from its ranks, so I have a hard time agreeing with your inclusion of it as an example here. Belief in Jesus as the Son of God etc is *the* definitive mandate of Christianity. This to me doesn’t seem comparable to Jewish rituals of faith and culture.
@@rinnachi yes, that was my point. Abrahamic religions focus on beliefs more than other religions. Some religions focus on ritual.
But not all followrers Abrahamic religions. There are Christian churches which have atheist pastors. Those are a minority, but they exist.
But my point was yes, most Christian denominations define themselves by list of beliefs.
Christians even do the same ritual like Holy Communion, but split over what you're supposed to believe the wine and bread consist of.
In the roman times, most religions only cared that you participated with your local group. Doesn't matter what you think of Jupiter, just as long as you come to the festival about him.
I like that there is a degree of empathy for hungry ghosts. While there is an obvious fear of supernatural harm, there is an element of care for the unquiet dead that I have not seen so much in Western traditions.
Yes, they're hungry & lost. We feed & guide them during this time.
😏 empathy for hungry 👻….but not on living 🤕
Closest thing that from the West may be the Day of the Dead celebration as for us there's this tradition/ belief that loved ones come to the realm of the living to hang out with their living family on this day and that's why we leave all sorts of offerings on the altars made for that time of year, however the celebration is mostly a mix of indigenous beliefs with the Christianity the Spanish brought (and possibly my ancestors were forced to believe in).
@@PP-vf1kx 10:12
@@monus782 Mexico isn't the west.
Once I told my mum inflation in hell must be hellish while holding a a pack of 10 million hell currency notes.
My mum told me to shut up.😅
It's incredibly fascinating how the taboo against whistling at night lest you attract unwanted spirit attention shows up in so many unrelated cultures!
I was very afraid of these. And my mom even told me not to play flute or recorder at night when I was a kid. And, somehow I dare myself to do that and nothing happened. Hahahaha. Yes, I am a flautist.
It's probably a really old belief.
Then you got El Sibon in South America. Which is a whistling ghost.
Interesting to see the parallels among different cultures that believe ghosts of the dead visit the living
Wouldn't be much of a point having ghosts if we can't hang out with them.
So basically gauging whether or not all Chinese people believe in ghosts based on participation in this festival is like gauging whether or not all people believe in Jesus based on participation in gift-giving during December. Going through the motions and having fun with it doesn't necessarily correlate with belief.
Yup
That's why they are peaceful instead of fighting over one God and they keep God in their hearts and home
Christmas isn’t Christian. It was originally called Saturnalia, a pagan holiday. Jesus was more likely born in May. Constantine was scared of losing his empire and he adopted Christianity to keep the people in line.
@@RockWonder210 Christmas is Christian now though. Saturnalia actually doesnt resemble modern Christmas very much at all. you should probably learn more about Saturnalia and Christmas before you say stuff like this
@@gwen6622 It doesn't change the fact that it's origins are from Saturnalia. People care more about gifts, Christmas carols and Christmas trees. Plus, the time of the year has literally nothing to do with the time Jesus was born. No biblical evidence of Jesus being born on Dec. 25th. Most bible scholars believe he was born in September. This was another Roman Catholic holiday pushed on the entirety of Christianity because the Emporer was trying to keep the pagans happy. Seems like you need to do some reading.
Joss money is regularly burned throughout the year, normally alongside major festivals like spring festivals, also during anniversaries of the relative’s passing, less often on birthdays.
My father would always burn some joss money, both large bills and small changes, every new year for his long-passed mother. He would use a chalk to draw a circle with an opening, writing her name within it, and burn the money in the little “house”.
He would say something like “Happy new year mom. Take the money to have a great feast. Don’t forget to stay warm. If you need anything, just let me know in a dream.”
He would also always deliberately burn some money outside the circle, telling the other wandering ghosts to take the money and get away.
Your dad sounds like a great son. It's respectable that he still cares about his mom even after a long time. Not many people are like that I find. Much admiration to your dad.
Weird. My family did a circle with a dot because they believe you'll open yourself up to be followed by evil spirit. We only need to write the deceased name/title n sign it with the circle n dot in middle.
That’s what my family did too, but we later changed to using water instead of chalk
During the pandemic at the cemetery that I visited, people just left stacks of unburned hell bank notes on the headstones.
And you merely standing there without participating? Tut-tut.
You are by far the best foreigner covering the topic of the Chinese Ghost Festival
As a Taiwanese, thank you very much for covering this topic!
Pronunciation guide for the two souls if you want to mention them to Mandarin speakers:
hun (魂) - read like "hwen" in a rising tone, imagine saying "when?" and breathing the h
po (魄) - read like "pwo" in a falling tone, imagine saying 'pour' but without the -r
(These two words also appear in Japanese with the pronunciation 'kon' 'paku'; if you're familiar with the Touhou franchise then you definitely have heard of it.)
Some other thoughts:
There is a Chinese saying 寧可信其有，不可信其無 (Rather believe it exists than believe it doesn't)... the interesting part is that the saying doesn't require you to specify what "it" is, and so we use it for anything, very often supernatural things, without actually specifying what belief system (if any) we follow. I think this saying describes the "seemingly atheist but participating in religious practice" phenomenon quite well.
...and yes, even Taiwanese people (me included) find pole-dancing for ghosts weird, but it is definitely a thing.
Thanks for the feedback, I appreciate it! I should have double-checked the pronunciations.
hwoon with a rising tone would be more accurate than hwen isn't it, since we aren't using pinyin?
@@k0v4c The "un" in pinyin is actually a shorthand for "uen", and I wouldn't describe it as "oo".
@@VieShaphiel yeah but that "uen" is not exactly the uen in "when" .... and in the US, southerners have a lot of "hwen" and "hwy" and such changes to how they say "when" and "why". Writing 魂 as "hwen" will not produce good results with English speakers. I would still argue simply using pinyin, or explaining that the "u" in hun is not the english kind, but rather closer to the english "oo" - is better.
And I wish Taiwan stopped using Wade-Giles, it really doesn't benefit foreigners xD
Repent. Believe in Jesus Christ and become a new person in this life.
John 3:16 KJV For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. Matthew 4:17 KJV From that time Jesus began to preach, and to say, Repent: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.
2 Corinthians 5:17 KJV - Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.
You're probably the best religious studies TH-camr. There are a lot of other good ones too, but you have the perfect balance of different factors that make your videos entertaining and informational.
He is good, but I wouldn't say he's the best, as his videos are made from an earthly perspective, not a cosmic one.
@@rizkiramadhan9266What would a 'cosmic' perspextive even cover? Earthly is what humans are.
@@dizzydoom4230 the perspective that takes into account that the topic is real and factual, instead of simply cultural phenomenon or belief. Someone studying Islam from an earthly perspective would think that God is a man-made concept inspired by the Canaanite El, while someone studying Islam from the cosmic perspective would know that He is the supreme deity, and whatever parallels He has with the Canaanite entity is nothing more than humans getting close to the truth but missing.
@@rizkiramadhan9266 Then what you're saying is someone who is of the practicing faith would perhaps be the man for the job on explaining things within it to their fullest extent. Makes sense.
@@dizzydoom4230 yes, either that or if you don't follow the religion, put yourself in the shoes of someone who does. That's my approach to Hinduism and Buddhism, although personally I think Hindu gods do or did exist.
The idea of pole dancing for ghosts is something I never would have thought of.
I wasn't clear on whether the audience was only ghosts or if the living were also welcome to attend. The concept itself isn't weird. I mean, in other contexts, people rehearse in empty places, so that could be seen as performing for ghosts. I assume it just means there are lots of festivals and performances and such, so why not include pole dancing, since it makes lots of people happy? No different than playing music. It just sounds weird to European-influenced cultures/secular humanists because we have been doubly trained not to believe in ghosts, or we associate ghosts with scary or childish things.
Result of modernization.
Same reason you have paper bmw and iphones.
@@katherinegilks3880
Both. The first few rows are reserved for the ghost. Human audience sit behind them.
I'm from Malaysia, i've been told when i was born i used to cry profusely at night time, in a daily basis. The cried got so loud, even the neighbour took notice and because our family is Catholic, initially she was hesitant to approach my mother but because it got so bad she finally suggested to my mother why don't she start do this offering.
(Just for the context my mom is Chinese, my dad isn't, because usually in Malaysia, Chinese won't ask non chinese to do such offerings)
And she hasn't stop since, only yesterday she did her offering even after my parents divorce, she doesn't associate herself to any religion but she continues this traditions.
Becoz hungry ghost will grab u!!!
@@nganvo840 i think she don't mind right now after 30 year 😆
As a kid living near San Francisco in the 1970s, where my dad had several Chinese friends, burning ghost money every year was just part of the fun :-)
Family took a vote earlier this year and decided to cremate all ancestral remains and spread them in the ocean, so our offerings now require a boat trip. I voted against this, so now all the elders are unhappy with me when I asked them how we're going to burn the joss money on the boat. I wasn't trying to bug them about it; it honestly just occurred to me that we didn't think this through back then.
I'm not head of my own household so the logistics of it are not my expertise, but I have two suggestions:
1. you do the offerings at a convenient local temple (I seem to recall my dad burning LNY offerings at the Sze Yup Kwan Ti Temple in Glebe (we're in Sydney)) or you build a convenient local shrine on-shore close to where their ashes were scattered
2. It's Viking funeral time for all those offerings (plus, free boat for your ancestors!)
@@PurpleShift42the last one, make the offerings on the shore in view of the sea.
How they gonna ask for a vote then get upset with you for voting
🤔 after we’ve departed, only the soul remains…soul being the memory of the departed…offering is just a psychological gesture to the living!
@@sunnysuryani5674 Oh, not that. They're upset because they thought I was saying, "I told you."
As a bhuddist, we believe that most of the ghost returning back to earth are the innocent once and if we see them on accident they could just be accompanying you and protect you from bad spirits, the offerings given would be a blessing to them
Also hungry ghost in hungry ghost realm
I lived in Taiwan for 3 years, and my apartment complex had an outdoor covered swimming pool. It was delightful to have the pool pretty much exclusively to myself during the Ghost Festival season.
This dude is haunted!
This festival is called Zhongyuan festival, not ghosts festival.
@@yanyanz3011 In English that translates to something close to "Hungry Ghost Festival." That one day takes place in the longer Ghost Month which is usually in August or September.
A lot of people do not necessarily believe in ghosts, but these cultural practices and holidays allow families to be reunited and people to experience a sense of ritual.
@eltonbritt1502 - Even if one does not believe in ghosts, honoring the sacrifices of ancestors who came before, and being mindful of their contribution to our lives, DNA and all,, is a good and grounding thing. (Even if we have become separated from the knowledge of who our ancestors are, they still existed back in time and deserve a passing thought or two.)
Thank you
first time I've seen a ray mak comment with zero likes
@@WhatName6 hewwo
Been waiting on a video about hungry ghost festival for awhile now being its a religious channel 😆, appreciate the work
quite the popular festival here in Singapore, but it is in decline
Actually the chinese ghost festival is not just influenced by Buddhism but also Taoism. It is believed that on the 15th of the 7th month its the birthday of the deity Earth Official. On this day , he will pardon the sins of both the living and the dead. Hence prayers and offerings are offered during this day to seek his pardoning. Furthermore during this time its also for worshipping ur ancestors to rmbr ur roots and fulfil filial piety
That is correct, but for this belief to exist the concept of "sin of the dead" must first be introduced, and that actually came from Buddhism. Daoism originally didn't have a concept of the afterlife to begin with, and there wasn't even a word for "sin" before Buddhism came along.
@@andrewsuryali8540 Taoism actually did have a concept of afterlife in the beginning. It was believed that the underworld lies at Mount Tai. Maybe what u meant was that the concept of 18 levels of hell that was introduced in later on.
@@andrewsuryali8540 and as for sins of the dead. Maybe not as how we understand sin as but since ancient times, thr was the belief that wrongdoings will cause the Gods to reduce ur lifespan and that they will be punished after death. As for how they will be punished, that wasn’t specified and thats how Buddhism ideas of how the dead will be punished be able to come in later on
This festival is called Zhongyuan festival, not ghosts festival.
11:29 - So THIS is the reason why Hu Tao wears EXACTLY those colors in Genshin Impact!
First learned about the ghost festival and hell money from the The X-Files episode “Hell Money”. I can’t vouch for how accurate these aspects were portrayed in the episode, but it was enough to get me curious to learn more. Also featured Lucy Liu before she was famous and James Hong stealing the scene as the villain.
B.D. Wong also guest starred in the episode.
Overseas Chinese communities be like: I'll make my own ghost festival with blackjack and h00kers, in fact forget the blackjack.
This festival is called Zhongyuan festival, not ghosts festival.
The accuracy is fantastic, really nailing the modern chinese relationship to these traditions (from my limited understanding of my Chinese in-laws). This is so good, and useful for me personally, thank you.
This is incredible! But could you please include the Chinese character instead of just the English transcription of the terms? Sometimes I have no idea what word you are referring to
It's called Hanzi not Chinese character.
@@yanyanz3011 That is the literal translation. Or Han Characters if you want to be technical.
Diyu (地獄)
po (魄)
hun (魂)
Ennin (圓仁)
With scandal and shame, they slandered his name
They told him to freeze, they damned him to roast
Disappointed that he passed away peacefully
Never dying to be a mischievous ghost
in Malaysia (at least in my living area), we actually do the offerings on the streets on the 14th and one more offering to our ancestors on the 15th
My family's explanation on why it lasts a month: Logistics can't keep up with the humongous needs of offerings on that one single day.
My grandparents are from Yunan and they call hungry ghost "those who can't get onto a table," whevener they do those kind of food offering for the dead, they always arrange a small plate with a small portion of every dishes on the offerings, and place it on the ground outside the house.
"Do Chinese people believe in ghosts?" That's like asking "Do Americans believe in Santa Claus? How about the Baby Jesus?" Um, it's complicated.
OP has said before about how communities are internally diverse and I hope that he still thinks that way, and isn't overlooking his scholarly respect on account of living in the extremely sinophobic West.
@@thomaswhite3059 The West is sinophobic?
Really?
I can at least speak for myself, I am not afraid of Chinese people. I am slightly worried about the Chinese Communist Party, but that's a different story.
@@thomaswhite3059the west is not sinophobic it’s ccp phobic and rightly so I’m ethnic Chinese and we all need to be wary of ccp china
@@Michael-Archonaeusyou would not believe the anti-chinese hate I have seen coming out of Westerners mouths.
@@Michael-Archonaeusyou can see the Communist party modernising China with futuristic development. Compare a mere subway station in USA and China, it's a huge difference.
in my country (singapore) the basic summary for the hungry ghost festival (that's what we call it) is that the ghosts come back to the world of the living to eat. no i'm serious that's the story i've been hearing my whole childhood and i could be wrong now that i think about it-
one of the superstitions was that if we hear a ghost call our name, we MUST NOT turn our heads to the back as it is the ghost calling us and that we should just ignore it bc it will follow you. but since i'm a chirstian i'll be busy differentiating whether i'm hallucinating or that God is calling me or that satan is up to his shenanigans again.
i'm from singapore too, a chinese buddhist at that, & i never knew about this superstition. oops
@@share_accidentalit's fine the some of the superstitions (maybe some that idk) are kinda funny lol
Broke: your daughter is a stripper
Woke: your daughter is an exotic dancer
Bespoke: your daughter is a pole dancer for ghosts
Here's a fun fact: in all versions of the arcade video game, Samurai Shodown/Spirits V and VI. One of the playable fighters is a large hungry ghost named Kusaregedo. 🍖👻
As a Chinese-Malaysian, we do practice all this ritual during this festival. But when I grew up to high school and started learning Economy, I began to think the inflation rate must be crazy in the hell realm with that much money sent to there every year.
Alternatively they might just have a fixed price economy - I don't imagine the afterlife has much call for the labour theory of value because I can't imagine the dead are working (at least, on things that aren't karma) or being paid in a fungible medium of exchange
Yes, believe me. Just look at the denomination in the joss money. I don't know what you have in Malaysia, but Indonesia, the joss money is in denomination of trillion and even quadrillion. 😅
There were a lot corrupted officials in hell before the actual recipients get theirs hence one will have to burn more than what's actually necessary. You don't have to believe me, someday you'll know.
1:18 In Spanish, it is actually referred to as ‘Dia de Muertos.’ The ‘Los’ comes from translating it into English and back into Spanish again. Only people in the US refer to it as ‘Dia de Los Muertos.’ A more appropriate translation is ‘Dead’s Day,’ like how ‘Dia de Madres’ is not ‘Day of the mother’s,’ but ‘Mother’s Day’
I didn’t know that they didn’t use the articles for those festivities.
In Venezuela we say El Día de la Madre, and I’d never heard it without the article “la”.
November 1st we have a “Día de los Santos Difuntos”, also with the article. Culturally the only relation to the one in Mexico is that it’s that both have the Catholic Church’s blessing.
@@gabitamiravideos Interesting! Thank you for your reply. It’s a Mexican thing, I’m not sure why it’s that way. I’m not Hispanic, I just studied Spanish in school (+ I’m fluent). The regional variations are very fascinating. Of course, it is grammatically correct to say ‘Día de los Muertos,’ but no Mexican would say that. Mexican Americans, might, however. More than any other Spanish-speaking country, Mexico has a unique relationship to the English language because of the amount of Mexican Americans that travel back and forth, and because of Americans that live in Mexico.
I started She Who Became the Sun and the narrative just reached the Ghost Festival. Perfect timing.
This festival is called Zhongyuan festival, not ghosts festival.
I lived in China and experienced it many times myself! 🎉
I love to see this. Making a video on the Hungry Ghosts was one of the most personally moving projects I’ve done. It’s so beautiful!
Many Western people don't believe in Christian doctrine or Santa Claus, but still 'religiously' celebrate Christmas for reasons of tradition, social bonding, shared experience, gift giving satisfaction, child entertainment and familial celebration.
Keep up the exceptional work, Dr Henry 👍
My family once did it
Besides joss paper we also burned: clothes(made of paper), entire house(made of paper), car, stationary, furniture and real food(Chinese cabbage, tea and wine).
Every year at qingming festival we burn joss paper (silver and gold), hell money and of course incense sticks, a lot of it.
My elders told me: our ancestors need a lot to survive in the afterlife.
Figuring out what to add to the pile is part of the "fun".
"You think we should burn a smart phone for grandma?"
"She doesn't know how to use it anyway."
"Which brand of car does uncle like?"
"He always wanted to drive a Ferrari, we can burn him that?"
"Who the heck makes paper Ferrari?"
"Ohh there are joss paper Ferraris, it's just not gonna be cheap."
And since the 2000s, we started to burn cellphone, complete with the voucher also. Otherwise how could they communicate in the underworld. And I think we need to burn a cell phone tower also, hahaha.
@@onisuryaman408 Do we also burn wifi routers and modems? And PCs? Hahaha what if they like to play games down there?
@@gelinrefiraYes, there are paper PCs and game consoles available for these days. Paper credit cards began to be available in the 80s, then paper cellphones in the 90s and now, paper smartphones and tablets.
@@asimovissac yeah it's quite amazing, & a bit amusing, to see these new stuff being added over the years for the offerings
I am of Chinese-descent and have celebrated something similar to this, I still don't know why this exists until watching this vid
Thank you so much for this!
Love this episode! Can you do one on “ghost marriages”, where one or both parties in the union is/are deceased?
"Mulian" is the Chinese name for Maudgalyāyana (Sanskrit) or Moggalana (Pali), the arhat and disciple of the Buddha who was foremost in supernormal powers. It was through these powers that he could travel to other realms and meet his reborn mother.
Thanks for doing this. Appreciate it very much. Love Singapore. ❤️
Once I'm a Ghost, I will ABSOLUTELY need to have pole (and burlrsque) dancers perform for me.....ALL. NIGHT. LONG. 😎💃🏻👻
Ground news really sponsoring my favorite channels these days
I am Malaysian Chinese, and I feel funny learning about ghost festivals from a western caucasian man, nevertheless, the info is good knowledge. Malaysian Chinese celebrate the ghost festival, and it's a huge celebration or event with Ge Tai (Concert for ghosts where the first row is reserved for ghosts), and tons of food and joss sticks left around the roadside after prayers.
Love the photo with Taiwan beers. ln Taiwan I think many people believe in ghosts even if they rarely think about it in their daily lives. Most observe the rituals and taboos during ghost month because of the "The consequences of believing is much more benign than not believing when you are wrong" mentality, aka 寧可信其有，不可信其無.
There is wisdom in that. So long as the consequences of belief are benign or beneficial (like better mental health and being kinder to others), why not believe?
Ayy, so it's Pascal's wager basically
love the explanation
I don't believe in ghosts or an afterlife, but I sure as heck enjoy celebrating Halloween! Especially in places where society is becoming more secular, belief isn't always the driving factor in observing religious holidays. Often it's just the fun of it all, and keeping an old tradition alive.
I'm the same. I also celebrate Christmas. It's fun and nostalgic to me, and I enjoy being part of large cultural festivals. I can imagine participating in this sort of thing symbolically, to remember the dead, without thinking my actions actually did anything supernaturally. Chinese folk religion has the added benefit of not proselytizing, unlike western religions where I have to avoid certain aspects because I would be pressured to convert.
As I recall, Halloween emerged out of a Celtic cultural practice, mainly from Britain but also found in western France and Germany, called Samhain (sow-een in Modern Irish; older Irish and other Celtic languages used a similar name.) The very last part of the harvest was to slaughter excess livestock: you knew how much hay you would have for the winter, so the surplus animals were butchered, the meat preserved, and the skins tanned. The Celts believed that all this death and bloodshed thinned the veil between this world and the next, allowing ghosts to walk among the living. The exact timing was local, as the harvest and slaughter took place at different times in different places. Jack-o-lanterns -- originally made with turnips -- served as wards to keep away malicious ghosts away. Food would be left out for the dead, and all comers were invited to table with the family lest the stranger be a ghost who would burn your fields or curse your cattle if you were not hospitable: that was the origin of trick or treating.
These cultural practices were preserved when the Celts became Christian, and some Celtic practices became part of general Western Christianity, which is how Samhain morphed into All Saints (which also derived from the ancient octave of Easter celebrating the dead risen in Christ, which was moved to the end of the harvest and fixed on November 1 because early spring stores were not enough to feed pilgrims who stayed after Easter.) The Catholic Church then brought Catholicism to Central America, where All Saints merged with Aztec and Mayan ancestor worship to become Dia de los Muertos.
@@vashsunglasses To be really fair Chinese folk religion is kinda limited to... Chinese folk. Also, at least in my experience, as a Chinese person people assume you WILL participate in the folk religion, as a part of culture (specifically veneration of ancestors), which makes it kinda weird when say, someone converts to monotheistic religion and stops doing that (which is why stuff like Catholicism nowadays allows Chinese ancestor veneration as "cultural" and not religious)
If u don't believes in circle of life ,after life
Then no life,no death for you and u aren't even able to standing here bro
Fun fact: Many academic scholars, and indigenous people believe Día de muertos was actually celebrated as a month long celebration (measured as Gregorian calendar time). It wouldn’t be until the arrival of the Spanish that they forcefully converted the indigenous populations to Catholicism, and shortened the celebration to only two days long by pushing the celebration to align with All Saints Day. What’s even more interesting is that when they try aligning indigenous calendars alongside the Gregorian calendar they found that día de muertos more than likely occurred throughout the months from July-August, which is even more similar to China’s holiday!:)
Buddhist ideas have integrated into cultures of different countries in different ways. Eventhough, we don't celebrate it as a specific festival, similar occasion can be seen in Southern buddhist culture (Theravada) as well. In our culture, we offer foods to monks and conduct buddhist sermons on the 7th day after the day of death of a relative. Then, again it is conducted after three months and after one year of the death. Then it continues annually on preference. The purpose of doing this is, If the deceased person was born as a hungry ghost (Pretha), we can transfer him merits by doing good deeds. By seeing this he/she will be happy and that good karma will let him/her to has good things (foods, less suffering etc.)
Thank you! I've always wanted to know about religion in China
In many Chinese societies, the people generally believe in science and not ghosts and spirits, however the rituals and festive activities of the 7th month are still practices in the form of social gathering, company celebrations and temple festivals. Usually in these events there are stage performances, offerings to the spirits and catering of food for the participants, so we can also see it as a form of economic driver to local communities and temple.
The ghost festival also include making earthbound spirits cross over and not linger in earth plane. The joss paper is a form of energy for spirits to cross over.
This festival is called Zhongyuan festival, not ghosts festival.
Always love your videos👏💸💵
(time stamp 12:00) to paraphrase: "does Christmas in America mean that everyone is a Christian/religious?" No, Christmas has become as much a cultural celebration as the Ghost Festival seems to be in China. And, just like the Ghost Festival is, technically, a single specific day but has evolved to take place over the entire month, so too, in America, Christmas may be a single specific day but we have an extended "Christmas season" (that seems to become longer and longer with each passing generation)
This festival is called Zhongyuan festival, not ghosts festival.
@@yanyanz3011
Well, obviously "Ghost" is being used as an English translation of the Chinese word for it. How would YOU translate "zhongyuan" into an English equivalent?
@@lshulman58 Zhongyuan is a name, it's proper noun, there's no equivalent word in English and hence we use the Chinese pronunciation. For comparison, how would you translate "sushi" and "kimchi" into English?
@@yanyanz3011
Who was this Zhongyuan? So this is a festival focused on this one person? And the person is long dead, thus a "spirit" or ghost? And, over time, the people extended honoring this dead person to honoring all dead people (all ghosts)? Thus the "ghost" festival.
@@lshulman58 Zhongyuan is not a person name, and has no any relation with ghost or deceased spirit or whatever you call it. It's just a festival name, just like Halloween in your western culture. It's actually a birthday celebration for Di Guan, which literally means the god of earth. This is one out of three celebrations in each year, which each one of them celebrates one god separately. First one is called Shangyuan festival, which is commonly known as Yuanxiao festival ( wrongly translated as "lantern festival") used to celebrate Tian Guan, lit. the god of heaven. The second one is this Zhongyuan festival, and the last one is called Xiayuan festival which is used to celebrate Shui Guan, lit. the god of water. These three gods are the gods in Taoism.
Thank you I just learned this in my world history level one class it was a nice refresher
From Malaysia here, my neighbours celebrated it too!
I had the pleasure to see a Ghost Festival ritual in the summer of 2021 and it's one of the most interesting rituals I've seen, the Cantonese regional ritual is called "breaking out of hell" where a tent is set up, representing hell, and people jump out of it symbolizing our ancestors breaking out of hell, prompting the people to offer up food or money as a way to respect ancestors - filial piety, one of the greatest concepts in Confucianism.
This festival is called Zhongyuan festival, not ghosts festival.
Generally speaking, Chinese people usually follow the religions that their families practice. For example, if the household is Christian or Muslim, they don't celebrate it as they see it more as a Buddhist or Taoist festival.
As to whether Chinese Christians or Muslims believe in ghosts, there are people who had paranormal experiences, especially in Southeast Asia, for some unknown reason. As such, they simply pray to Jesus or Allah for protection.
Well, when you say "Christian families" (speaking strictly about my personal experience here), I think it's probably better to say that that's the case in more devout Christian families - my family and I are nominally Christian (we put Catholic on the census, and I've done the age appropriate sacraments myself (i.e. baptism, First Reconciliation, First Communion, confirmation)) but we still do all the traditional rituals as part of cultural tradition - we're Christian because it's the historically dominant religion in the West (and as other commenters have noted, Chinese people tend to fall on the belief side of Pascal's Wager). But more devout people (like my aunt, who is an evangelical in a church that serves the Chinese community) might still do the more secular side of things (i.e. stuff requiring less belief in deity-like beings other than their religions cosmology) like LNY family reunions, they just don't do the more religious side of things like offerings and incense.
Also, IIRC the Vatican did say that offerings to ancestors is more cultural than religious so I should be fine on that front (although my source is Wikipedia rather than my local priest haha, I am very much a _lapsed_ Catholic)
@PurpleShift42 Veneration of ancestors is mentioned in the Book of the Maccabees but is not considered canon by Protestants. Catholics in Singapore do have a more tolerant view towards other religions. Most of the more radical Christians I met tend to be Protestants.
In SEA, we respect each other's religions. Some even practice more than one religion. I myself is a practitioner of Taoism, Buddhism and Hinduism.
@@peterkhew7414 Yes, some older generation Catholics still keep the Chinese tradition, including burning joss money and offering food the ancestors. But I see that the younger Catholics rarely follow the tradition. At least this is the case in Indonesia. Maybe because most Chinese Indonesias do not speak and read Chinese, which is one of the main part in keeping up with the tradition.
@@aldenteh9412 That wouldn't be unheard of in China as well!
Thank you.
Thanks. I was just looking for an explanation. Now time to burn paper money
I'm wondering if that kids article freaked out children. I wouldn't want to make a kid believe that they could be possessed if they don't follow all the rules correctly. Like, what if a shirt has a little bit of red on it? Would a child be wondering/worrying about it all day as they wore it?
I bet the idea of unpleasant afterlives also freak out children
My grandparents used to tell me these taboos a lot as a kid. Yea, it was freaky, but it felt no different than telling me not to accept car rides from strangers or touching wild animals for fear of kidnapping or harm.
@@shadowdragon3521 Talking about hell is super traumatizing to children. There's lots of studies about it
@@choptop81 I was terrified when I read book about Islamic hell when I was a kid. There is a popular comic book about it, complete with the graphic torture! But the Christian hell doesn't seems so bad 😅
When my grandpa died in 1994, we burned a whole box of these "Money" to him, along with two young "maid", an European mansion, a Mercedez car and some suits and tie with a rolex watch in it.... of course all made of Paper Mache.
There are actually 5 parts to the soul in Chinese thought or alternately 5 souls. As you say, there is the hun which is the "travelling soul," that which dreams and is capable of astral or shamanic travel during life and so forth. It is not clear precisely what happens to this soul upon death, but this may be what turns into a wandering ghost if it is not properly cared for. There is the p'o which is the "soul" that animates the body. It returns to the earth upon death. It is associated with the color white because of the bones which are the last to decay. It lives in the Lungs because the respiratory rhythm is what keeps our bodies alive (in part). There is the Shen which lives in the Heart and gives a person their own unique individual personality. This may be the soul that reincarnates. There is the Zhi which lives in the Kidneys (a much larger concept than the western idea of the same) is associated with the Yuan Shen or Yuan Qi, is associated with the original energy of the universe and is part of your ancestral line. This part probably is what becomes a helpful venerated ancestor. There is also the Yi associated with the thinking part of the person, but as this is usually under the control of the Shen in life, it probably either merges with the Shen at death or merely dissolves. The reason I think this is interesting is by having this very complex notion of "the" soul, the Chinese are able to explain how it is that one person can be a ghost or an ancestor but can also reincarnate within or without one's family lineage. Pretty cool.
This is and older saying and different from what I understood and is related to self cultivation i think. Usually when I say soul I refer to newer sayings with 3 hun and 7 po. From daily Chinese uses I thought hun-po means soul, jin-shen means spirit, and yi means conciousness or willpower. This is different from the older sources.
@@d512634 I want to make sure I understand you. Do you think the 3 hun 7 p'o configuration is older or more recent. I am aware of that division which I associate with more esoteric Daoist teachings although it is now filtering into some Chinese medicine schools. I didn't mention it as it seemed more information than folks might want. As you imply, my comments are largely related to Chinese medicine rather than more purely Daoist divisions of the "soul."
In singapore, getai singers (very popular in the 80s) even drive their brightly lit stages into cemeteries to perform during the Ghost month.
when you think about it you can classify Dicken's book character of Jacob Marley as a hungry ghost
This is an AWESOME tradition. It involves ghosts AND burning things. I'm surprised it hasn't spread more in the U.S.
I think this may differ from region to region, but as far as I am taught, the soul bit is incorrect.
It's not really "two pieces of the soul", but rather that the person is made up of three parts. The Ling靈, the Hwen魂, and The Puo魄。
The Ling is more like the purest form of soul, and since it's know as the most 'perfect' part of you, it's rarely talked about; it doesn't really need to be adjusted, balanced or fixed. That's why people usually assume there's only two pieces of the soul.
The Hwen is more like the concept of your consciousness. The Puo literally represents the physical part of yourself.
Many people mind how the Puo is treated after a person has passed, especially if you are related to that person, because if they are treated well, it means anyone related (by blood)in the family is blessed and will have smoother lives because of it. That's why we take the time to clean the graves and give offering. There's a dedicated time of year to do so, but some people, out of love for their parents and ancestors, visit whenever they can.
_
Again, it may differ from region to region. That's just how I was taught growing up and during my time in a local (Taiwanese) Buddhist religion group. Regardless, thanks for making the video! :D
Ah, very nice to have this explanation. Nobody ever told me this. From what I now, we always use the word Ling Hwen for soul, or in my Hakka dialect Lin Fun.
Has there been any study done on whether there is a link between the Chinese god Di and the western Deus, Dei, and Deva?
reminds me of Álfablót in my Germanic Pagan religion. in the middle of fall, the ancestors are worshipped and given offering.
oh man those guys throwing huge piles of plastic bags into the fire at 7:21 ...that's going to be terrible for the air pollution.
I love Ground News btw
I think you should do the videos on 84 mahasiddhas... It would be very interesting
You failed to mention that the ghosts festival is rarely celebrated in China due to religious celebrations mostly wiped out during Cultural Revolution. Nowadays, it's still being widely celebrated in Taiwan, Hong Kong, Macau, and most of the Chinese buddhists in South East Asia.
yep, the city areas in china don't really celebrate them anymore but the villages do!
This festival is called Zhongyuan festival, not ghosts festival.
@@yanyanz3011 中元节在东南亚俗称盂兰盛会或鬼节，所以才会有西方的ghost festival直接翻译。佛教称之为盂兰盆节，是为了追思祖先；而道教称之为中元节，是为了祭祀孤魂野鬼。
@@marklee8512 我這裡稱之為 jilanshingfui (盂蘭盛會)
@@marklee8512 但正確應該叫做 Zhongyuan festival.
We do this too in Singapore.
I seen a Chinese lady did this on street one night ,and she and her husband was pray ,it was freaking me out when I was younger
remembering respecting the dead is practiced in every culture and religion
in islam a couple of weeks before Ramadan we honour our dead we pray for them we believe Allah allows them to visit their families but not interact.
Thanks
@ 5:00 Have you done a video about the dual-soul doctrine? Peter Novak
I live in West Borneo, Indonesia
Many chinese celebrate this too. Some in Sumatra island.
0:00: 👻 The Ghost Festival in China is a time when offerings are made to the spirits of the dead, even for those who have no family.
3:34: 👻 Chinese indigenous religion involved giving offerings to deceased ancestors and addressing concerns about malicious ghosts.
6:34: 👻 The Ghost Festival is a combination of Buddhist and Chinese beliefs where everyone is expected to participate and make offerings to the ghosts.
9:53: 👻 The Ghost Festival in Taiwan and other Chinese communities involves offering food, alcohol, and other items to ghosts, as well as holding sales and performances for their benefit.
13:05: 👻 Belief and practice in China's society is complex, with elements from Daoism, Confucianism, and Buddhism, and high participation in popular religious practices like making offerings to ghosts during Ghost Festival.
Recap by Tammy AI
This festival is called Zhongyuan festival, not ghosts festival.
Can you do a video on the book of Zohar and the book of jubilees?I know you did one on Thomas . Maybe a video on each?
I remember that this was my happy days during my childhood. Everything was so festive. You had bands playing music, dioramas depicting the 10 levels of hell of Buddhism, the giant effigy of the hell's king. And my favorite, the replica of the boat that is going to carry all the ghosts back to the afterworld. And everything would be burned at the night of the festival (not including the band, of course).
There was also the tradition of putting up prizes on high racks, or poles, and people can race to get the free stuffs from there. The prizes ranging from small prizes like sandals, shoes, up to TVs and even refrigerators or motorcycles! It is so exciting for me as kids to see all of these.
And then the fire nation attack... Ups, no. In 1966, after a failed coup, the new government regime conducted communist purge. And all things related to China (ugh, Chinese... communist...) including the cultures, festivals, schools, even simple stuff like Chinese characters in printing were banned. Fortunately, decades after that, the ban was lifted, but I always feel that it still doesn't reach its heyday decades ago. I still miss the festival that I experienced as a child.
Whoever it was I saw giving out oreos in your video as their ghost gift, is the people I plan on haunting when I become a ghost. Also I assume the hell money offered to ghosts can be used by the ghosts for tipping ur favorite pole dancer.
In China there are ghost cities which are full of empty apartments people buy for their ancestors
Can u do a video on elagabolus
On burning hell money, there are also other forms of material pleasure created for burning such as cars, credit cards, (off-brand) luxury goods or everyday items. They seem to be usually burned alongside hell money as well. During the start and rise of COVID I think I remember shops selling paper masks, vaccinations and test kits. Not sure if COVID transcends into the supernatural realm, but I guess that's caring for your ancestors in a way, lol. This is what I've observed in Singapore and Malaysia, where these items are similarly sold in bundle form like in Taiwanese stores.
Midsummer in Sweden is the best out in the archipelagos or countryside in my opinion. To me its not the same in a big city, the more nature the better.
- Norwegian spending childhood summers in Sweden
Pole dancing for ghosts sounds great. Halloween is coming up soon here in the uk 🇬🇧 and might do some pole dacing for the ghosts. 😁💀👻✊️
Cantonese kid here. I just love burning stuff.😂
Not just in China but also in Chinese-influenced societies like Taiwan (some of the images of "China" here are in fact Taiwan). If anything, it's far more widely observed here than in the PRC, at least per capita. Personally, I find this season fascinating. (For the record, most people here in Taiwan seem to believe in ghosts to some degree, and I've started adopting many of the practices around it without any conscious intellectual investment.)
Because Taiwan is a part of China, at least a part of Republic of China.
@@julioduan7130 Polling pretty consistently shows that the vast majority of Taiwanese people identify as "Taiwanese" only, with a smaller number identifying as both "Chinese and Taiwanese," and see "Republic of China" simply as the official name of what has become a de facto separate political and cultural entity.
There ARE Taiwanese who identify with Chinese culture and heritage, or even with the "Republic of China" name and symbols (usually from the mainlander minority who came over after Chinese Civil War), but most young people today see "Republic of China" as a title forced on Taiwanese people by a dictatorship that was overthrown, democratized, and localized so much that it has little relevance to their identity or sense of nationhood, to say nothing of Indigenous peoples who have a complex relationship to both the ROC framework and independence movements. I certainly don't know anyone my age in Taiwan who sees herself as "Chinese" or "part of China," though many of my friends do love traditional Chinese culture, though probably more also like Japanese and Korean pop culture, so...
@@feelin_finethe polls are speaking about nationality not ethnicity. Most Taiwanese are indeed Han Chinese and most don't deny it.
yep, it's because of the cultural revolution in china so religious practices & all these traditions aren't really a thing in chinese cities. in the villages, they're still being practised. i don't have a verified source, it's just what i heard HAHA. the chinese people from countries like malaysia & singapore managed to retain these practices because we didn't go through anything similar. i know because i'm singaporean chinese
You know, you could have gone to Mainland and see for yourself
Folk religion, Buddhism, and Daosim are still alive in China
In Fujian and Guangdong folk religion are still going strong
It’s interesting, Chinese Ghost festival aligns with the middle year Mercury Retrograde time, I know because I find out both things today 😅
tbh it feels like a coincidence of orbital patterns to me, given that the Chinese calendar is EXPLICITLY lunisolar (i.e. based on the orbits of the moon around the earth and the earth around the sun)
We'll see if that continues to be the case thousands of years from now (or even thousands of years in the past, given Chinese claims of 4000 years of cultural continuity)
@@PurpleShift42They adjust the calendar constantly. Every shrine hand out a small yellow book containing the newest calendar each year. Each cones with details of each day's chi or fortune based from the book of changes.
This festival is called Zhongyuan festival, not ghosts festival.
I live in Shanghai and today I saw an old lady burning ghost money, etc for Ghost Festival. However, she also had cups of water with a small banana on top of each. I've lived and worked in this country for almost nine years but I've never seen people put bananas on top of water cups. I'm searching online but can't find anything. Was there a special reason the bananas were on top of the water cups?
Maybe it’s cup of licor. She separated the licor and food for different ancestors. This is my guess.
@@julioduan7130 That sounds right.
@MatthewCasella81 - She is especially fond of bananas and wanted to share her joy of them with the ghosts ?
They were meant for specific ghosts who like bananas?
It is a traditional offering in her family?
She is afraid that the ghosts are low in potassium?
That is all she had on hand?
-------------
[ @julioduan7130 - In English, it is spelled "liquor", from French, I think.]
@@MossyMozart I think the ghosts were probably low on potassium 😊
This festival is called Zhongyuan festival, not ghosts festival.
I'm only gonna watch after the ghost month
@RelgionForBreakfast Can you do a Video on collective Trauma healing, presencing and/ or Theory U. (f.i. Thomas Hübl, Otto Scharm, Ken Ilber...) . Seems religious/ spiritual movemnet like to me and I am wondering what to make of these ideas...