It is said that the door to hell is opened on the first day of the seventh month in the lunar calender. This month is traditionally know as the Ghost Month. The 15th day in the month is called the Ghost Festival and many Buddhist and Taoist performs certain rituals for the wandering spirits. This can be found in many countries across Asia.
In Taiwan, many people take part in the festival as Taiwanese love to pray for all different occassions - health and fortune, marriage, exams, buying a new car or scooter .... In particular, temples and those in the villages perform many traditional rituals and practices during ghost month. I live in the city, so haven't had a chance to witness these rituals, but the people in the city still celebrate in their own way.
Starting a few weeks ago, all the supermarkets started selling massive boxes of snacks to be used as offerings to the spirits. For example Blessed Water and Peace Peanuts (yes, that's actually printed on the products) in the first two photos below.
Yesterday, 15th August was the 15th day of the 7th month ie the Ghost Festival. When I was on my way to my yoga class in the morning, I saw a lot of people preparing for the festival. Many commercial and residential buildings setup up a gazebo and table outside on the street for the ritual. This is the one outside my block of flats.
When I got off the bus, this restaurant had already moved all the offerings outside. I got the feeling they're just using all their stock as offering as I could see bottles of oil, tinned fruti and veg, and boxes of noodles and beer. I mean who offers bottles of cooking oil to the dead unless you pull them out from your stock.
And by the time I finished yoga, this was the scene outside the commerical building where my yoga school is located. Most of the companies inside the building take place. They all bring their own offerings and place them on the table along with incense sticks and joss paper which will be burnt as offerings to the spirits
The incense sticks are said to be food for the dead, at least that's what my dear old gran told me before she died, bless her soul. And the joss paper are like ghost money. All of these can be bought at the supermarket.
And in case you are ever in Taiwan during the Ghost Month, these are some of the things that you might want to be aware of:
- don't go and play around dangerous places with water
- don't tap someone on the shoulder especially when you're coming up from behind
- don't use banana, plums and pears as offering as they sound like "calling you here" in the local Taiwanese dialect
- the ritual must to performed outdoors, you don't want to invite the spirits indoors, and my favourite
- don't hang your washing up at night time
馃懟馃懟馃懟馃懟馃懟