July 15th is the Hungry Ghost Festival.

In China, the 15th day of the seventh lunar month is the Ghost Festival. The Hungry Ghost Festival is a Taoist name, commonly known as July Half, Ghost Festival, and Ancestor Worship Festival among the people, and the Bon Festival in Buddhism. The main festival customs of the Ghost Festival include worshiping ancestors, setting off river lanterns, worshiping the souls of the dead, burning paper ingots, and offering sacrifices to land. The Ghost Festival is a traditional cultural festival for Chinese people to remember their ancestors. Its cultural core is to respect ancestors and show filial piety.

July is an auspicious month and a month of filial piety. The first half of July is a folk festival in early autumn to celebrate the harvest and reward the earth. When certain crops are ripe, folk will worship ancestors as a rule and use new rice as sacrifices. Report Qiu Cheng to ancestors.

Custom activities:

1. Burn incense and firecrackers

Every night on the 14th or 15th of July, people burn incense and firecrackers outside the door, and at the same time "burn buns" ” (also called “recommendation package”).

2. Sacrifice to the land

In July and a half, it is also popular among the people to worship the land and crops. Throw the offerings into the fields. After burning the paper, cut the five-color paper into strips and wrap it around the ears of the crops. Legend has it that it can avoid hail attacks and achieve a bumper harvest in autumn. In some places, sacrifices are also performed at Houtu Temple. It is a folk custom in Dingxiang County to hang ma and grain on the door.

3. Zhongyuan Purdue

On the Zhongyuan Festival, many people will choose a day between the first day of the seventh lunar month and the thirtieth day of the seventh lunar month to enjoy wine, meat, sugar cakes, Sacrificial activities are held with fruits and other sacrifices to comfort the ghosts of the family who are playing in the human world, and to pray for their own safety and success throughout the year. The more solemn ones even invite monks and Taoists to chant sutras and perform rituals to save the souls of the dead.

Some people will also invite Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva, Maud Lian Venerable and other Buddha statues to be placed on high platforms during this period, or ask artists to play the role of the exorcist god Zhong Kui (some ask artists to control Zhong Kui's puppet). To eliminate the hostility of the dead souls.

4. Praying for a good harvest

Sacrifice in the middle of July is often associated with praying for a good harvest. On the night of Shigu, every household will burn incense at the door of their house to pray for a good rice harvest, and insert incense branches on the ground. This is called "Bu Tian" (seedling transplanting). The more you insert, the better, which symbolizes a bumper harvest of rice in the autumn.

5. Eating duck

Many places across the country will choose to eat ducks in July and a half. Because ducks swim in the water, they take the meaning of river lanterns to pray for people. There is also a saying that "duck" means "pressure", which is a homophonic pronunciation. Eating duck is to suppress the "soul". This statement is a bit far-fetched, because in many places "duck" and "pressure" have different pronunciations. Dongguan people usually eat duck cooked with lotus root.

Reference for the above content: Baidu Encyclopedia-Hungry Ghost Festival