Three major ghost festivals: Qingming Festival, March 3rd, and July 14th/15th (according to local customs, some places consider July 14th to be the Ghost Festival, and some places consider July 14th to be the Ghost Festival) The 15th day of the lunar month is the Ghost Festival), the first day of October
The third day of March
In the Jianghuai and Jiangnan areas, the third day of the third lunar month is called the Ghost Festival. Legend has it that ghosts appear on this day. At night, Families set off firecrackers in every house to scare away ghosts and drive them away.
July 14/15
According to legend, every year from July 1st, the King of Hell orders the gates of hell to be opened to let those innocent ghosts who have suffered all year round and are imprisoned in hell. Get out of hell, get a short-term wandering, and enjoy the blood food of the world, so people call July the ghost month. This month is considered an unlucky month, and people neither marry nor move.
Every year on the seventh day of the lunar calendar The 14th/15th day of the lunar month is the Bon Festival, also known as the Ghost Festival, the Half-July Festival or the Ghost Festival. In the past, in addition to worshiping their ancestors, people also prepared some dishes, wine, rice, gold and silver on this night. Wear clothes, paper and the like and go to the intersection to offer sacrifices to ghosts and gods.
July 14th/15th of the lunar calendar is the biggest festival in the underworld - Ghost Festival, also known as the Ghost Festival or the Bon Festival. One of the three important festivals in the underworld. There is a folk legend that the Lantern Festival is celebrated in the human world and the Ghost Festival is celebrated in the underworld. It is said that the King of Hell will also dress up in costumes and celebrate the festival with the ghosts on that day, and let us living people bless them together, wishing that people in the other world will realize their wishes and enjoy the happiness that they have not had time to enjoy in this world. Therefore, many local communities in our country will hold activities such as offering sacrifices, visiting Buddha, cleaning tombs, reviewing flowers, appreciating flowers, and fishing to celebrate.
The ghost festival originated from the story of Mulian rescuing his mother: "There is a monk named Mulian who has great magical power. His mother fell into the realm of hungry ghosts, and food turned into flames when she entered it. The hunger and suffering were too great. Mulian could not To save his mother from misfortune, he asked the Buddha for advice and taught him how to make the Ullambana Sutra on the 15th day of the seventh month to save his mother." It is said that Mulian met him after going through many hardships in the underworld at that time. His dead mother, Mrs. Liu, discovered that she was being tortured by a group of hungry ghosts. Mulian tried to feed her with vegetables and rice in a bowl, but the food and rice were taken away by the hungry ghosts. Mulian had no choice but to seek help from Buddha. Buddha was moved by Mulian's filial piety and granted him the Ullambana Sutra. According to the instructions, Maud Lian used the Ollomb basin filled with precious fruits and vegetables to worship his mother on the 15th day of the seventh lunar month. The starving mother finally got food. In order to commemorate Mulian's filial piety, Buddhists hold a grand "Ollambana Festival" every year, which is what we now call the "Ghost Festival".
The book says that on this day in ancient times, people would set up the Master's Seat and Shigu Terrace in front of Jiekou Village in advance. In front of the mage's seat is the Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva who has saved the ghosts of "hell", and below is a plate of peaches and rice. There are three spiritual tablets and soul-calling flags standing on Shi Gutai. After noon, every household placed whole pigs, whole sheep, chickens, ducks, geese and all kinds of cakes, fruits, melons, etc. on Shigutai. The person in charge put a handful of triangular paper flags in blue, red, green and other colors on each sacrifice, and wrote words such as "Bon Lan Festival" and "Ganlu Gate Opens". The ceremony began with a burst of solemn temple music. Immediately afterwards, the mage rang the bell and led the monks to recite various mantras and mantras. Then serve, scatter a plate of noodles with peaches and rice in all directions, repeat three times. This ceremony is called "flaming mouth". Wang Kaitai, a scholar in the Qing Dynasty, once wrote a poem: "The Taoist temple purifies the ghosts, and the original Yulan ancient meaning remains. But it is strange that the red paper is posted on the door, and the Roshan wine sea celebrates the Chinese New Year." It describes the area along the southeastern coast of my country. Ghost Festival customs.
It can be seen that the "Ghost Festival" originated from the traditional virtue of filial piety. Today, people in northern my country still burn paper money on this day to pay homage to their ancestors who have passed away long ago and to express their longing for their loved ones. Although the sacrificial method is simple, it basically preserves the simple meaning of the Ghost Festival. Because the call of blood, the extension of emotions, and the reminder of one's future all give the Ghost Festival rich humanistic connotations. Even though the years have changed and the gifts burned have changed, the living people can never convey the endless sorrow and deep remembrance of their departed relatives. But "people of different ages have different feelings about this special festival, because the future festival is coming to us mercilessly, from hazy to clear, from longing to fear, from fear to calmness, missing the past people At that time, I was actually thinking about the experience, content, method and pursuit of my life today."
July 14th/15th is the day when the door of hell opens.
Whether it is burning paper money to send blessings, holding daisies to express condolences, or offering sacrifices to ancestors on the Internet, or setting off river lanterns, people alive today miss the people in the past together, and send blessings to their ancestors together. Spiritual spontaneity is an extension of emotion and the most basic belief. And at the same time, "People who are alive should cherish every day they are alive, and don't be ashamed of society and friends, and don't be ashamed of relatives who have left forever. Because one day we will meet them, and when the time comes, you can be proud It is said that if you are a hero in the world, you must also be a hero in the underworld."
The first day of October is called the "October Dynasty", also known as the "Ancestor Worship Festival"
Our country Since ancient times, there has been a custom of offering sacrifices to ancestors during harvest time to show filial piety and not forgetting one’s roots. Therefore, people also use millet to worship their ancestors on the first day of October. On the first day of October, ancestors are worshiped, including family sacrifices and tomb sacrifices, both in the north and the south. Today in many areas in Jiangnan, there is still the custom of offering sacrifices to new graves on the first day of October.
The first day of October is also the first day of winter, and since then the climate has gradually become colder. People are afraid that the souls of ancestors in the underworld will lack clothes and clothing. Therefore, in addition to general offerings such as food, incense candles, paper money, etc., there is also an indispensable offering - underworld clothing. During sacrifices, people burn Mingyi to their ancestors, which is called "sending cold clothes". Therefore, the first day of October is also called the "Shaoyi Festival".
Later, in some places, the custom of "burning cold clothes" underwent some changes. Instead of burning cold clothes, people "burned baggage." People sealed many ghost papers in a paper bag and wrote: The names and corresponding titles of the recipient and sender are called "baggage". It has the name of cold clothes, but not the reality of cold clothes. People think that the underworld is the same as the earth, and you can buy many things with money.
There is also a story about Cai Lun making paper and Cai Mo burning paper during the Ancestor Worship Festival.
When Cai Lun first invented paper, business was very good. Cai Lun's sister-in-law Huiniang asked her husband Cai Mo to learn papermaking from Cai Lun. They came back and opened a paper mill, but the paper produced by Cai Mo was of poor quality and could not be sold. The two of them were very worried. Later, Huiniang thought of a way to get out of the predicament.
In the middle of the night one day, Huiniang pretended to die of a sudden illness. Cai Mo was heartbroken and mourned in front of her coffin. He burned the paper and cried: "I learned to make paper from my brother, but I didn't pay attention. The quality of the paper I made was so bad that it made you sick. I want to burn this paper." It turned into ashes to relieve the hatred in his heart." After burning it, he brought some paper to burn. After burning it for a while, he heard Huiniang shouting from the coffin: "Open the door, I'm back." This shocked everyone. , people opened the coffin, and Huiniang pretended to sing: Money can travel everywhere in the world, and paper is doing business in the underworld. If my husband hadn’t burned the paper, who would have let me go home?
Hui Niang sang it many times and said: "Just now I was a ghost, now I am a human, don't be afraid. When I got to the underworld, the King of Hell made me grind and suffer. My husband gave me money, and I got a lot of money." The kid helped me, money can make a fool of himself. The third official also asked me for money. I gave him all the money, and he opened the back door of the underworld and let me back. "Cai Mo pretended to be confused. "I didn't give you any money?" Huiniang said, "The paper you burned is money from the underworld." After saying this, Cai Mo took a few more bundles of paper and burned them to his parents.
When the people present heard this, they thought that burning paper had great benefits, and they all bought paper from Cai Mo. Hui Niang generously gave it to the villagers. This spread spread from ten to ten, and villagers from far and near came to buy the Cai family's paper and burn it for their deceased relatives. Within two days, the backlog of paper was sold out. The day when Hui Niang "returns to Yang" falls on the first day of the tenth month of the lunar calendar. Therefore, future generations worship their ancestors on the first day of October and burn paper at their graves to show their memory of their ancestors.
On the first day of October, some places still have the custom of offering sacrifices to the Ox King. According to legend, this custom originated in the Spring and Autumn Period of Qin. One day, Duke Wen of Qin ordered someone to chop down a catalpa tree, which suddenly turned into a cow. Duke Wen of Qin ordered people to hunt him down. The cow jumped into the water and never came up again. People built the "Nute Temple" to worship the cow god. Nu Te is a tall, strong and majestic bull. Such bulls, in people's minds, have the function of driving away diseases and evil spirits and protecting cattle.
Ghost Festival and Ghost Culture
There are countless Chinese words that use "ghost" such as "ghost hero, ghost ghost, ghost talent", and folk legends about ghosts are even more difficult to collect. Exhausted. Our country's ghost culture has a long history and has reached an almost perfect level.
It is difficult to see the description of the afterlife in ancient mythology, and the word "ghost" did not originally have its current meaning.
The word "ghost" in the oracle bone inscriptions is originally a knowing word, with the word "human" below and a terrifying head above, meaning a human-like monster. Later, it gradually evolved into what a person changes into after death. "Book of Rites: Sacrifice" has made it very clear: "All living beings must die, and those who die must return to the scholar. This is called a ghost." "Book of Rites: Sacrifice" further points out: "Common people and common people have no temples, and death is called a ghost. "That is, when dignitaries have temples to worship them after death and have people offering sacrifices all year round, they become gods. Ordinary people who have no temples to worship after death and wander around are ghosts. "Ghosts, people are classified as ghosts" explained in my country's first dictionary "Shuowen" is the current meaning. There are many words related to "ghosts" in pre-Qin classics. Confucius famously said, "Respect ghosts and gods and keep them at a distance." This shows that Confucianism believes in ghosts and gods, but it is just "respect". Later, although Wang Chong of the Eastern Han Dynasty came up with the theory that there were no ghosts, it still could not shake the Chinese people's superstitious belief in ghosts and gods. In Pu Songling's works of the Qing Dynasty, although there were ferocious ghosts, most of them were young and beautiful female ghosts who valued affection and understood etiquette. After reading "Liao Zhai", not only did ghosts not feel scary, but they felt very cute.
The perfection and enrichment of my country’s ghost culture benefits from Buddhism and Taoism. Taoism is our real estate, Buddhism was introduced from the West during the Han and Wei dynasties, and was integrated into Confucian culture and secular culture. The underworld world after death (also called the underworld in Buddhism), which is the world where ghosts live, is gradually constructed. The main Taoist building is Fengdu City, which is concretely demonstrated on Pingdu Mountain on the bank of the Yangtze River in eastern Sichuan. The beautiful Pingdu Mountain was originally one of the seventy-two blessed places of Taoism. Wang Fangping of the Western Han Dynasty and Yin Changsheng of the Eastern Han Dynasty both practiced here and later became immortals. The transformation of Fengdu from immortals to ghosts is related to the surnames of the two immortals. Wang and Yin read backwards, which means the King of Yin, and he became the "King of the Underworld". After interpretations of the past dynasties, plus "Journey to the West" and "The Biography of Zhong Kui" After the novels about gods and demons were exaggerated, Fengdu was built into a ghastly ghost city, so there were the underworld grounds and government offices at all levels such as Naihe Bridge, Guimen Pass, Yin and Yang Realm, Emperor's Palace, Wuchang Palace, and City God's Temple. Compared with the Taoist underworld, the Buddhist underworld is much more complete and systematic. Buddhism has the so-called "Ten Realms", which means that there are ten realms in the world, namely Buddha, Bodhisattva, Pratyekabuddha, Sravaka, God, Human, Asura, Animal, Evil Ghost, and Hell. The first four are called the "Four Saints", that is, they have become saints and have escaped the suffering of reincarnation. The last six are called the "Six Mortals", who will reincarnate endlessly in the filthy land. The last three are also called the "Three Evil Paths" and the "Three Evil Paths". "Evil realm" is a more unfortunate state, and hell is the most unfortunate. Speaking of hell, it makes people shudder, and there are as many as eighteen levels. The lower you go, the more severe the suffering. In hell, there are not only evil spirits such as Yama, judges, and ghost soldiers, but also various tortures such as mountains of knives, oil pans, grinders, saws, and stone mills. Therefore, the most feared thing after death is entering the eighteenth level of hell.
In addition to the ghost world, the components of ghost culture are of course also inseparable from the ghost festival. There are two important ghost festivals in our country: Qingming Festival and the 15th day of the seventh lunar month.
The Qingming Festival and tomb sweeping are related to funeral customs. According to records, in ancient my country, there were "tombs without tombs", which meant that only grave pits were dug but no tombs were built, so there was no way to carry out sacrifices and sweep them. Later, the tombs were added to the tombs, and the custom of offering sacrifices and sweeping came to have support. During the Qin and Han Dynasties, tomb worship had become an indispensable custom. "Book of the Later Han Dynasty? Records of Emperor Ming" quotes "Han Guan Yi" as saying: "In ancient times, there were no tomb sacrifices. Qin Shihuang slept on the side of the tomb, and the Han Dynasty did not change it. All the tombs were decorated with Hui, Wang, Twenty-four Qi, Sanfu, She, and La. "Food is served at four o'clock." The emperor almost always offered sacrifices during festivals. Officials and ordinary people did not have so much time and money, so they gradually settled on the Qingming Festival in the 24 solar terms. At that time, the government allowed officials to ask for leave to worship and sweep, and among the people, "the roads in the fields were full of ladies and gentlemen, and humble servants and beggars all had to go to their parents' graves." By the Tang Dynasty, the sacrifice and sweeping ceremony had combined Hanshi and Qingming into one It's spring, and flowers are blooming. You can carry wine and go to the graves in a lively manner. Qingming is not only a ghost festival for sacrifices, but also a day for outings and fun.
As for July 15th, the inclusive festivals and customs are more complicated. It is not only the folk Ghost Festival, but also the Taoist Ghost Festival, the Buddhist Bon Festival, and the three streams of monks, Taoists and seculars. Taoism has the so-called Heavenly Official, Earthly Official, and Shuiguan, collectively known as the Three Officials. These three are the representatives of the Jade Emperor sent to the human world. Every year, they inspect the good and evil in the human world and report to heaven. The birthdays of the three officials are respectively the fifteenth day of the first lunar month, the fifteenth day of July and the fifteenth day of October. These three days are also called Sanyuan. The fifteenth day of the seventh lunar month is called Zhongyuan. It is the time when local officials and school officials are pardoning sins. On this day, he will take out a thick roster and, based on the performance of gods, mortals, and animals, draw outlines and pardon sins. Exemption from prison sentence. Folks carry out some sacrificial activities on the Ghost Festival to save those lonely ghosts, which should be related to the pardon of sins from local officials.
July 15th is the Buddhist Obon Festival. It is said that Sakyamuni had a disciple named Mulian. Although his mother was young and beautiful, she had no good words and deeds. She loved money and was stingy, and especially hated monks. After her death, she was cast into the ranks of evil spirits. Mulian was given guidance by the Buddha. On the fifteenth day of the seventh month, prepare hundreds of flavors, five fruits, and various utensils, put them into basins, and offer them to the monks in the ten directions. Only then will his mother escape from the world of evil ghosts and ascend to heaven. In view of this, the Buddha extended it and asked Buddhist disciples to practice filial piety with all their heart. Every year on the fifteenth day of the seventh month, they make Ullambana basins and give alms to Buddha and monks to repay their parents' kindness. The significance of the Buddhist Bon Festival coincides with the Confucian filial piety, and this day has become a ghost festival for people to worship their deceased parents and ancestors.
From a secular point of view, the settings of these two ghost festivals are just right. Qingming Festival is when the snow in the north melts and the ice disappears. After the rains of autumn and summer and the ice and snow cover of winter, some of the loess on the tombs has been washed away, making them shorter and smaller. I use the Qingming Festival to sweep them away and add some soil. Let the ancestors' houses not leak from the wind and rain; and on July 15th, the beginning of autumn has passed, the weather is getting cooler, it is time to add clothes, it is also time to send some money to the ancestors underground to buy some clothes, no As for being cold and freezing in winter.
The Chinese nation is a nation of rituals and has always paid attention to the memorial and remembrance of ancestors. I remember that when my family used to worship ancestors during the Spring Festival, the horizontal inscriptions on it were "Woody Water Source" and "Shen Zong Zhui Yuan", which meant not forgetting our ancestors. During the Cultural Revolution, when the Four Olds were destroyed and superstition was fought, who would dare to go to graves and burn paper? There is no burning paper to buy in the market, but many people still buy the white paper used by primary school students to order notebooks and secretly burn it on the graves of their relatives. In recent years, with the development of the economy, sacrificial supplies have become a major category for merchants to make money. Every Qingming Festival and July 15th, the streets are full of burning paper, and they are pushed into hills in front of the stores. There are many types and huge quantities. There are as many as stacks of fruit boxes during the Dragon Boat Festival and Mid-Autumn Festival. And it is very similar to modern commodities. The burnt paper is in piles and bundles, neat and beautiful, and evenly printed with the imprints of ancient coins. There are also colorful U.S. dollars and Hong Kong dollars, with large denominations. One piece is worth hundreds of millions, plus the sizes are different. The golden gold ingot, if there really is a bank in Hades, it would be ashamed of its lack of financial resources and would be willing to close down. Can burning so much "money" really enable departed relatives to live a prosperous life in the underworld? There is no way to know. There is a saying that "the heart is sincere and the spirit is spiritual." I remember when I was a child, the old man said that it was not easy to use ready-made burnt paper, no matter how high the face value was. The best thing to use was to use a chisel carved from wood to look like a copper coin and hit the paper with a small hammer. There are many things to pay attention to when punching paper. It is best to be a descendant of the ancestor, it must be a boy, the hammer must be made of wood, and the marks made by punching cannot be overlapped. When I was a child, I often did this during the Chinese New Year or two ghost festivals. The old man told me that just putting a seal would be enough, but he was afraid that it would be difficult to use in the underworld because he didn't know it clearly, so he always hit it hard. He was also afraid that the money was short and the ancestors would not have enough, so he always hit it tightly. Although there is more paper now and it looks more beautiful, I feel that the paper money made by descendants when I was a child can better reflect the true feelings for the ancestors.
Of course, on the day of the Ghost Festival, from the mountains to the streets, fires are shining everywhere, smoke is lingering, and paper ashes are flying, causing environmental pollution, sometimes causing fires and causing unnecessary losses. What can be done? It is a custom passed down from our ancestors, but the Chinese have not yet learned the habit of using flowers to express their grief and remembrance of their deceased relatives like Westerners do. Ghost Festival sacrifices cannot simply be regarded as superstition. In Western Christian countries, modern science has sent people to the moon and launched rockets to Mars, but they still have unwavering faith in God. In fact, it is a kind of spiritual sustenance. It may seem vulgar when we burn a few pieces of paper for our deceased relatives, but it actually contains rich moral and ethical connotations. This is a kind of gratitude and memory for departed relatives, a dialogue with people from another world, a kind of communication with ancestors, and a continuation of human race and spirit. Even if your loved ones were unfilial or poorly taken care of when they were alive, you can still achieve a psychological balance by saying a few words when visiting the grave and burning paper. Perhaps with the development of the times and the improvement of people's cultural level, our nation will find better ways to commemorate our ancestors, but commemorating and remembering our ancestors is indispensable in all times.
According to legend, July 15th of the lunar calendar is the day when the gates of ghosts are opened. On that day, they can stay in the earth for one day. Even some lonely ghosts can accept offerings from people in the earth on that day, so that day is also called It’s called Ghost Festival.