Ghosts'Festival
① In China, the date of Ghost Festival is 15 in July of the lunar calendar.
Lunar July 15 is the biggest festival in the underworld-Ghost Festival, also known as the Mid-Autumn Festival or Orchid Festival, and it is one of the three major festivals in China. There is a folk legend that the Lantern Festival is celebrated in the underworld and the Ghost Festival is celebrated in the underworld. It is said that on that day, Yan Xihui will spend the festive season with ghosts dressed in costumes. Let us living people bless them together and wish people in another world all their wishes come true and enjoy the happiness that this world has not had time to enjoy. Therefore, many local festivals in our country will hold activities such as offering sacrifices, chanting Buddha, sweeping graves, reviewing, enjoying flowers and fishing to celebrate.
Ghost Festival originated from the story of Manglietia's rescue of mother: "People with Manglietia monks have great strength. His mother fell into the hungry ghost road, and the food mouth turned into flames. Hunger was too bitter. Unable to save his mother, Mu Lian asked the Buddha for advice. In order to talk about the Lanpen Sutra, she taught July 15th to make a Lanpen to save her mother. " According to legend, Mulian went through all kinds of hardships in the underworld, met her dead mother Liu and found that she was tortured by a group of hungry ghosts. Manglietia tried to give her a bowl of vegetable rice, but the vegetable rice was taken away by the hungry ghost. Mu Lian had to ask the Buddha for help. The Buddha was moved by Mu Lian's filial piety and gave him the Lanjing. According to the instructions, Manglietia arranged a vegetarian feast for her mother in a orchid pot on the 15th day of the seventh lunar month. The hungry mother finally got the food. Buddhists hold a grand "bonsai" every year to commemorate the filial piety of Manglietia, which is what we now call "Ghost Festival".
According to the book, on this day in ancient times, people would set up a magician's seat and a stone drum platform in front of Jiekou Village in advance. There is a bodhisattva in front of the master's seat, who is the treasure king who crossed the ghost of "hell". Below is a plate of peaches and rice. Shigu stood on the stage, holding three spiritual cards and evocative complex items in his hand. After noon, families put whole pigs, whole sheep, chickens, ducks and geese and various cakes, fruits and melons on the stone drum stage. The person in charge inserted a triangular paper flag of blue, red and green on each sacrifice, and wrote the words "Yulan Festival" and "Manna Gate Open". The ceremony began with solemn temple music. Then, the mage rang the bell and led the monks in the seat to recite various spells and mantras. Then feed, sprinkle a plate of peaches and rice in all directions and repeat three times. This ceremony is called "the opening of the flame". Wang Kaitai, a scholar in the Qing Dynasty, once wrote a poem: "The Dojo is full of ghosts, and the original ancient meaning of Magnolia still exists. However, it is strange that the red plaque is attached to the door, and the meat mountain wine sea celebrates the Central Plains. " It describes the Halloween customs along the southeast coast of China.
It can be seen that "Ghost Festival" is due to the filial piety of traditional virtues. Nowadays, people in northern China still burn paper money on this day to pay homage to their ancestors who died young and express their thoughts for their loved ones. Although the sacrificial way is simple, it basically retains the simple meaning of Ghost Festival. Because of the call of blood, the extension of feelings and the reminder of one's future, Ghost Festival is endowed with rich humanistic connotation. Even if the years are different and the burned gifts are different, the living will never finish reading endless grief and deep nostalgia for their distant relatives. However, "people of different ages have different feelings about this special festival, because the future festival is coming to them mercilessly, from obscurity to clarity, from missing to fear, from fear to calmness. When they miss the people of the past, they are actually thinking about their experiences, contents, ways and pursuits in today's life."
On July 15, the gate of hell was wide open. Whether it's burning paper money to send blessings, holding daisies to mourn, offering sacrifices to ancestors on the Internet, or setting off river lanterns, it's the spontaneity of human spirit, the extension of feelings, and the most basic belief that people alive today miss the past and send blessings to their ancestors together. And at the same time, "the living should cherish every day, not be ashamed of society and friends, and not be ashamed of their loved ones who have left forever." Because, one day we will meet them. At that time, you can proudly say that you are a hero on earth and a ghost hero in the underworld! "
In western countries, Halloween is also called Western Ghost Festival.