The Hungry Ghost Festival, also known as July Half, July Fourteenth, Ancestor Worship Festival, Bon Festival, and Diguan Festival, is a major traditional festival in China.
Hungry Ghost Festival is a Taoist name. It is commonly known as July Half, July 14, Auspicious Month, Shigu, and Zhaigu among the people. It is called the Bon Festival in Buddhism. "July 15th" was originally a folk ancestor worship festival in ancient times, and it was called "Zhongyuan Festival" because of Taoism after the Eastern Han Dynasty.
The main festival customs include worshiping ancestors, setting off river lanterns, worshiping dead souls, burning paper ingots, and offering sacrifices to land. Its origin can be traced back to the ancestor worship and related festivals in ancient times. July is an auspicious month and a month of filial piety. July and a half is a folk festival in early autumn to celebrate the harvest and reward the earth. When certain crops are ripe, it is customary for folks to worship their ancestors and use new rice as offerings to report the autumn harvest to their ancestors.
This festival is a traditional cultural festival to commemorate ancestors. Its cultural core is to respect ancestors and fulfill filial piety.