When the ghosts come out to eat and drink!
According to Wikipedia:
In the Chinese tradition, the seventh month in the Chinese calendar is called the Ghost Month, in which ghosts and spirits come out from the lower world to visit earth. The Ghost Festival is the climax of a series of the Ghost Month celebrations. Activities at the festival include preparing ritualistic offering food, and burning hell money to please the visiting ghosts and spirits, as well as deities and ancestors. Other activities include, burying and releasing miniature paper boats and lanterns on water, which signifies “giving directions to the lost ghosts.” A very solemn festival, the festival nevertheless represents a connection between the living and the dead, earth and heaven, as well as body and soul.
The culmination of this celebration, the Ghost Festival, falls on the 14th day of the seventh lunar month: in Gregorian calendar terms, that’s today: August 8th! Observed by Buddhists, Daoists and Chinese folk religion believers, the origins center around the story of MahÄmaudgalyÄyana, who negotiates this annual feast for the dead in exchange for the liberation of his dead mother from a lower realm. But no, we’re not considering MahÄmaudgalyÄyana as a name … I’ll update that ever-changing list below:
- Maia
- Elsa
- Ella
- Isabel
- Thalia
- Genevieve
- Cordelia
