Introduction to the festival:

The Mid-Year Festival, commonly known as the Ghost Festival, Shi Kuo, half of the seventh month, the Buddhist known as the Bon Festival. Along with New Year's Eve, Qingming Festival and Chongyang Festival, it is a traditional Chinese festival of ancestor worship and a traditional cultural festival popular in the countries of the Chinese character cultural circle. It is also a traditional cultural festival popular in the countries of the Chinese character culture circle. There is a custom of releasing river lanterns and burning paper ingots on the Mid-Yuan Festival.

On the 15th day of the first month of the lunar calendar, the Han Chinese call it the Shangyuan Festival, which is a celebration of the Lantern Festival, and has existed since ancient times; on the 15th day of the 7th month, the Han Chinese call it the Zhongyuan Festival, which is a festival of ancestors; on the 15th day of the 10th month, the Han Chinese call it the Xiaoyuan Festival, which is a cold food festival in honor of the wise men and women. Zhongyuan Festival is celebrated on the 15th day of the 7th month of the lunar calendar, and in some areas on the 14th day of the 7th month.

The Mid-Yuan Festival was originally a small autumn festival in which a number of crops ripened, and it was customary for people to worship their ancestors, offer new rice and other sacrifices, and report the success of the autumn to their ancestors. Therefore, every year, every family sacrifices to their ancestors on the Day of the Mid-Yuan, and performs the same rituals when making offerings. On the 15th day of the 7th month, people visit the graves and pay homage to their ancestors. Overseas Chinese overseas Chinese in the Qingming, Zhongyuan, Winter Solstice and Nianduo these four festivals will be sent batch of silver, otherwise it will be regarded as disrespectful to the ancestors, filial piety to the elders, irresponsible to his wife under the incompetence of the people.

Legend has it that all the ghosts will be released from the netherworld on the Day of the Chinese New Year, and it is common for people to offer sacrifices to the ghosts. Where there is a new funeral home, the example of a new grave, and generally in the local area to sacrifice the lonely ghosts and ghosts, becoming one of the largest festival of Chinese folk rituals.

Origin of the festival:

According to the Buddhist legend, there is the following allusion to the origin of the Bon Festival: According to the legend, when Buddha Shakyamuni was alive, he took ten disciples, one of them was named Meilian, his parents died before he attained Taoism, and because Meilian was very much nostalgic for his dead mother, he used his heavenly vision to see his mother's life in the hell. As he was very concerned about his dead mother, he used his heavenly eye to see how his mother was living in hell. It turned out that they had become hungry ghosts, with nothing to eat or drink, and their situation was pitiful. When he saw this, he felt very distressed, so he used his magic power to bring some food to his mother, but unfortunately, as soon as the food was brought to his mouth, it was immediately turned into flames. Seeing this situation, he was very distressed, so he told Sakyamuni about it, and the Buddha taught him that his mother had committed many sins when she was alive and so after her death, she fell into the path of the hungry ghosts, and would never be able to return to life, and that this sinful obstacle was not something that could be resolved by himself. He had to gather the power of all the people, so Meilian joined with all the monks and held a large-scale worship ceremony in order to transcend the dead souls of all the people. Later, this legend has been passed down to future generations, and gradually formed a folk custom, every year in the seventh month of the lunar calendar, people will slaughter chickens and ducks, incense burning clothes, worship by the hungry ghosts out of hell, in order to dissolve their grievances, not to harm the earth, over time, the formation of the ghost festival custom.