Ghost Month also known as the Hungry Ghost Festival, is a traditional Buddhist and Taoist festival held in several East Asian countries. According to the Chinese calendar (a lunisolar calendar), the Moon Phantom is on the 15th night of the seventh month (14th in parts of southern China).
In Chinese culture, the fifteenth day of the seventh month is called the lunar calendar and the seventh month is considered the Moon of the Ghost (鬼 月), in which ghosts and spirits, including deceased ancestors from more mundane bottom. Variations from the Qingming Feast (or Spring Break Day, in spring) and the Twelfth Feast (in the fall) where the living descendants of their deceased ancestors worshiped, during the Feast of the Spies, are believed to the dead are visiting life. On the fifteenth day the fields of Heaven and Hell and the land of life open and the Taoist and Buddhist alike will perform rituals to relieve and relieve the suffering of the dead.
The Spirits of the Dead are intrinsically intrinsic to the Moon, where the devotion of the ancestors to their ancestors continues even after their death. Monthly activities include preparing ritual food-offerings, incense burning, and burning joss paper, paper items such as clothing, gold and other good items for visiting visitors. spirit of the ancestors. Complex foods (often medicated foods) are placed next to the shelves for each of the deceased family members who are treated as if they were alive. Ancestor worship distinguishes the Qingming Festival from the Moon of the Spirits because it includes the second in honoring all those who died, as well as the older and younger generations, while only the older ones were included. Other festivals include buying and releasing miniature paper boats and water lanterns which means giving directions to the lost ghosts and spirits of ancestors and other fairies.
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The chronology and origin of the modern Phantom Moon originated in the Mahayana sculpture known as the Yulanpen or Ullambana Sutra The sutra records the time when Maudgalyayana achieved abhijñā and used his new powers to seek out his deceased parent. Maudgalyayana discovers that his deceased mother was reborn in a preta or kingdom of hungry ghosts. She smelled so sweet and Maudgalyayana tried to help her by giving her a bowl of rice. Unfortunately as a preta, he could not eat rice because it became charcoal burning. Then, Maudgalyayana asked the Buddha to help him; Buddha then explains how to help current and dead parents in this life and the past seven lives by voluntarily offering food, etc., to the sangha or convent community during Pravarana (the end of the parachute or vassa), which usually takes place on the 15th day of the seventh month where the abbey community transfers the merits to the deceased parents, etc.,
Older Theravada forms of festival in South and Southeast Asia (including Pchum Ben of Cambodia), originate from Petavatthu, a scripture in the Pali Canon that is probably dated to the 3rd century April. of Petavatthu was originally recorded in the Yulanpen Sutra, though it had to do with disciple Sāriputta and his family instead of Moggallana.
Observation
The Moon of the Spirits occurs in the seventh month of the Chinese calendar. It also happens at the full moon, in the new age, in the autumn harvest, in the climax of Buddhist monastic asceticism, the reincarnation of the ancestors, and the gathering of the local community. This month, the gates of hell are opened and ghosts roam the world in search of food and entertainment. It is believed that these ghosts are the ancestors of those who have forgotten to pay tribute to them after their death or those who have not been given proper ritual despair. They have long necks and needles because they are not fed by their family, or as a punishment to prevent them from swallowing. Family members offer prayers to their deceased relatives, offer food and drinks and burn hell banknotes and other forms of joss paper. It is believed that objects made of joss paper are considered to be of later life in some respects in the material world. People burn paper houses, cars, helpers and televisions to entertain ghosts. Families also pay tribute to other unknown ghosts so that these homeless souls do not intervene in their lives and bring misfortune. The ghosts are celebrated with a great feast on the fourteenth day of the seventh month, when the people bring food and place it on a sacrificial table to please the ghosts and to dispel the evil fate. Lanterns are lit and released into rivers and seas to symbolically guide the lost souls of forgotten ancestors to the afterlife.
In some East Asian countries nowadays, there are live concerts and invitations to all attend. There is always no one sitting in the first row because ghosts are sitting here. The shows are always in the evening and very loud because they are thought to be attractive and pleasant to the ghosts. Includes some shows of Chinese operas, dramas, and in some places, as well as burles. Traditionally, Chinese operas are primarily entertainment but newer shows, concerts, dramas, wars, and more are referred to as Getai. these acts are better known as "Merry-making".
Regarding rituals, Buddhists and Taoists perform ceremonies to relieve ghosts from suffering, most of them assembling for the ceremony in the afternoon or at night (because they are believed to liberate ghosts from hell drowning of the sun). The dead are erected on altars and priests and monks perform rituals for the benefit of the ghosts. Monks and priests often threw rice or other small foods in the air in all directions to distribute them to ghosts. At night, incense was burning in front of household doors.
Incense represents the development of Chinese culture, so families believe that there is greater prosperity in burning more incense. At the festival, some shops were closed because they wanted to leave the streets open for ghosts. In the center of each street, stood an altar of incense with fresh fruit and offerings spread over it. Fourteen days after the festival, people floated lanterns and let them out of their homes to make sure all the hungry ghosts went to hell.
These lanterns were made by placing a lotus-shaped lantern on a paper boat. Lanterns are sent to ghosts back to the underworld, and their disappearance symbolizes their search for their way.
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