Chinese Ghost Festival on the third of March (March 3), the Qingming Festival, the Festival of the Middle Ages, the Cold Clothes Festival, four festivals, collectively known as the "four major ghost festivals". The western ghost festival refers to Halloween.

The Ghost Festival refers to the festival that worships ghosts or festivals related to ghosts, which are an extension of life during the period of human obscurity. Eastern and Western cultures have slightly different concepts of the extension of life, but the death of man as a ghost has always been the mainstream of ghost culture.

Ghost Festival Customs:

1, March 3

March 3, is the legendary ghost festival, popular in the Jianghuai area, especially in Xinyang, Fuyang, Huainan as representative. Legend has it that every year on the third day of the third month of the lunar calendar, the boundaries between yin and yang, life and death, become even looser. On that night, the markets of the netherworld are decorated with lights and colors, draped in red and green, and the streets and alleys are crowded with gorgeous ghosts.

Everywhere you can see the dragon lanterns, lion dance, stilt walkers, flower boats, the bustling prosperity of the Spring Festival is not comparable to the earth, and therefore on this night, the human souls can not stand the temptation of the netherworld, have to go to the ghost market to play, some of them wandering in the streets and alleys to see the lanterns and watch the play; some in the restaurant and tea shop to drink and listen to the song; some take the opportunity to go to look at the ancestors who have never seen each other.

2, Qingming Festival

Qingming ceremony should be held in person to the cemetery, but because of the economic and other conditions of each family is not the same, so the way to make sacrifices will be different. "Burning baggage" is the main form of ancestor worship. The so-called "package," also known as "parcel," refers to the parcel that a filial son sends to the "netherworld" from the earthly world. In the past, the southern paper store sells the so-called "baggage skin", that is, with white paper paste a large pocket.

There are two forms: one is a woodcut version, printed around the Sanskrit translation of the "mantra", the center of the print a rosette tablet, used to write on the name of the deceased to receive money, such as: "the late Zhang Fujun taboo Yunshan boss man" words, both the mailbag and tablet.

The other is a plain wrapping skin, do not print any pattern, the center only stick a blue sticker, write the name of the deceased can be. Also do the main card used. Regarding the money in the package, there are many types.

3, half of the seventh month

Midwinter Festival, that is, the folk commonly known as the "Ghost Festival", because in the seventh month of the lunar calendar every year on the fifteenth day of the seventh month, also known as the half of the seventh month, the seventh month of hope. The name of the festival comes from Taoism, and the Buddhist festival is called the Bon Festival. Despite the strong colors of Taoism and Buddhism, the original source of the festival is y Confucian.

Song Zhaolin, a cultural archaeologist, argues in his book "Ancient Chinese Festival Culture" that the origin of the festival is more plausible that it originated from a festival of ancestor worship, and that it was not until the Wei, Jin, and North/South Dynasties that the festival was finally formed into a festival form of the Zhongyuan and Bon festivals as the two religions of Buddhism and Taoism penetrated into the festival. Ancestor worship, in turn, is inextricably linked to the "Autumn Tasting". Since ancient times, there has been the "Autumn Tasting", and Buddhism brought the "Bon Festival".

4, the first day of October

The first day of October, called "October Morning", also known as "Ancestor Sacrifice Festival", is also known as "Cold Clothes Day ". Since ancient times, China has the custom of sacrificing ancestors at the time of the new harvest to show filial piety and honor, not forgetting the original. On the first day of October, sacrifices were made to the ancestors, both at home and at the graves, both in the south and in the north. Today, in many areas of the south of the Yangtze River, there is still the custom of sacrificing new graves on the first day of October.

The first day of October is also the first day of winter, after which the climate grows colder. People are afraid that the souls of the ancestors in the underworld lack clothes, so, in addition to food, incense, paper money and other general offerings, there is also an indispensable offering during the sacrifice - the clothes of the underworld. During the festival, people burn the clothes to their ancestors, which is called "sending cold clothes". Therefore, the first day of October is also known as "Burning Clothes Festival".

Reference: Baidu Encyclopedia - Ghost Festival