3rd Sept 09
Quality copy and pasting from wikipedia:
"The Hungry Ghost Festival or the Feast for the Wandering Souls (also known as Zhong Yuan Jie in Mandarin) is held on the 7th month of the lunar calendar. On the 15th day of the 7th month, families pay respect to their deceased relatives and visit their graves often with much feasting as if their dead relations are still were with them.
It is believed that during this time, the souls of the unborn and that of departed ancestors and friends are released from Purgatory to wander the earth for 30 days. The souls of the dead ignored by relatives may do acts of mischief, so steps must be taken to appease the spirits before they go on a rampage. Hell money, paper offerings and joss sticks are burnt to see to their material needs; food is offered so that the souls do not go hungry and thus less likely to wreck havoc. Neighbourhood celebration dinners or zhong yuan (popularly known as getai) are held on the feast day, with auction of goods, operas and song performances being part of the festivities. The Buddhists and the Taoists have different ways of celebrating the feast. As ghosts are believed to dominate events, no auspicious activities such as such as weddings and business launches are held during this period."
I guess that explains it better than I would have. The 15th day of the Lunar month was yesterday and Gwenne, Marieke and I went to see one of the events in the evening. Gwenne was really good at explaining it all (thank you:) - as a tourist you'd really get the wrong idea about it if no-one told you. If I'd just walked past it on my own, I'd have thought it was a celebration, but it's more of a thing that people do because they have to. They always leave some seats free for the ghosts to sit in. You can see two empty tables in the photos.
I was expecting it to be almost a religious event but that was just me misunderstanding. The girls doing the stage performances would probably have entertained the male ghosts maybe too well for that to have been the case.
Had some puddings on the way home. The been curd grew on me and I definitely think I'll have the grass-jelly again. I probably wouldn't have tried them if I'd been on my own - been curd pudding tastes a lot better than I think it looks ;)
(PS. I didn't mean to upload the last photo from work but I'll leave it in because at least Chris will appreciate it, having had to sit through the same offshore civil lectures as me last year)
