The Chinese Ghost Festival Explained

The Hungry Ghost Festival in China is held on the 15th night of the seventh lunar month. It's a time when it's believed that restless ghosts roam the earth. During this festival, people pay homage to these deceased ancestors and other wandering spirits, seeking to appease them. Families often prepare offerings of food and drink, and make ritualized items such as joss paper (hell money) and incense to honor the departed souls. These offerings are meant to satisfy the 'hungry ghosts,' preventing them from bringing misfortune to the living. Performances, including opera and puppet shows, are held to entertain both the living and the spiritual guests.

Bibliography:
Stephen Teiser, "The Ghost Festival in Medieval China," 1988.

Mu-Chou Poo, "Ghosts and Religious Life in Early China," 2022.

Ingmar Heise, "For Buddhas, families, and ghosts: the transformations of the Ghost Festival into a Dharma Assembly in southeast China," in "Buddhist Funeral Cultures of Southeast Asia and China," 2012.

Hong Yin Chan, "The Hungry Ghost Festival in Singapore: Getai (Songs on Stage) in the Lunar Seventh Month," Religions 2020. 11(7), 356.

Select footage and images courtesy of Getty

[justincheng]

My father, an atheist through and through, nevertheless honored the ancestors. He would say ' we do it because it's our culture and tradition.'

[goblin]

I like that there is a degree of empathy for hungry ghosts. While there is an obvious fear of supernatural harm, there is an element of care for the unquiet dead that I have not seen so much in Western traditions.

[kristianwilliams]

It's incredibly fascinating how the taboo against whistling at night lest you attract unwanted spirit attention shows up in so many unrelated cultures!

[ReynaSingh]

Interesting to see the parallels among different cultures that believe ghosts of the dead visit the living

[Tomoyo_Sayomura]

Joss money is regularly burned throughout the year, normally alongside major festivals like spring festivals, also during anniversaries of the relative’s passing, less often on birthdays.

My father would always burn some joss money, both large bills and small changes, every new year for his long-passed mother. He would use a chalk to draw a circle with an opening, writing her name within it, and burn the money in the little “house”.
He would say something like “Happy new year mom. Take the money to have a great feast. Don’t forget to stay warm. If you need anything, just let me know in a dream.”
He would also always deliberately burn some money outside the circle, telling the other wandering ghosts to take the money and get away.

[gelinrefira]

Once I told my mum inflation in hell must be hellish while holding a a pack of 10 million hell currency notes.

My mum told me to shut up.😅

[VieShaphiel]

As a Taiwanese, thank you very much for covering this topic!
Pronunciation guide for the two souls if you want to mention them to Mandarin speakers:
hun (魂) - read like "hwen" in a rising tone, imagine saying "when?" and breathing the h
po (魄) - read like "pwo" in a falling tone, imagine saying 'pour' but without the -r
(These two words also appear in Japanese with the pronunciation 'kon' 'paku'; if you're familiar with the Touhou franchise then you definitely have heard of it.)

Some other thoughts:
There is a Chinese saying 寧可信其有，不可信其無 (Rather believe it exists than believe it doesn't)... the interesting part is that the saying doesn't require you to specify what "it" is, and so we use it for anything, very often supernatural things, without actually specifying what belief system (if any) we follow. I think this saying describes the "seemingly atheist but participating in religious practice" phenomenon quite well.
...and yes, even Taiwanese people (me included) find pole-dancing for ghosts weird, but it is definitely a thing.

[NetherStray]

So basically gauging whether or not all Chinese people believe in ghosts based on participation in this festival is like gauging whether or not all people believe in Jesus based on participation in gift-giving during December. Going through the motions and having fun with it doesn't necessarily correlate with belief.

[FlyingAlfredoSaucer]

You're probably the best religious studies YouTuber. There are a lot of other good ones too, but you have the perfect balance of different factors that make your videos entertaining and informational.

[andrewsuryali]

Family took a vote earlier this year and decided to cremate all ancestral remains and spread them in the ocean, so our offerings now require a boat trip. I voted against this, so now all the elders are unhappy with me when I asked them how we're going to burn the joss money on the boat. I wasn't trying to bug them about it; it honestly just occurred to me that we didn't think this through back then.

[charliegabriel]

I'm from Malaysia, i've been told when i was born i used to cry profusely at night time, in a daily basis. The cried got so loud, even the neighbour took notice and because our family is Catholic, initially she was hesitant to approach my mother but because it got so bad she finally suggested to my mother why don't she start do this offering.
(Just for the context my mom is Chinese, my dad isn't, because usually in Malaysia, Chinese won't ask non chinese to do such offerings)
And she hasn't stop since, only yesterday she did her offering even after my parents divorce, she doesn't associate herself to any religion but she continues this traditions.

[Qz_Taoism]

Actually the chinese ghost festival is not just influenced by Buddhism but also Taoism. It is believed that on the 15th of the 7th month its the birthday of the deity Earth Official. On this day, he will pardon the sins of both the living and the dead. Hence prayers and offerings are offered during this day to seek his pardoning. Furthermore during this time its also for worshipping ur ancestors to rmbr ur roots and fulfil filial piety

[angusmacdonald]

As a kid living near San Francisco in the 1970s, where my dad had several Chinese friends, burning ghost money every year was just part of the fun :-)

[stephenmcfarland]

I lived in Taiwan for 3 years, and my apartment complex had an outdoor covered swimming pool. It was delightful to have the pool pretty much exclusively to myself during the Ghost Festival season.

[eltonbritt]

A lot of people do not necessarily believe in ghosts, but these cultural practices and holidays allow families to be reunited and people to experience a sense of ritual.

[lietz]

The accuracy is fantastic, really nailing the modern chinese relationship to these traditions (from my limited understanding of my Chinese in-laws). This is so good, and useful for me personally, thank you.

[Ou_phrontis]

First learned about the ghost festival and hell money from the The X-Files episode “Hell Money”. I can’t vouch for how accurate these aspects were portrayed in the episode, but it was enough to get me curious to learn more. Also featured Lucy Liu before she was famous and James Hong stealing the scene as the villain.

[HuyTran-nond]

You are by far the best foreigner covering the topic of the Chinese Ghost Festival

[Mesh_potato]

As a bhuddist, we believe that most of the ghost returning back to earth are the innocent once and if we see them on accident they could just be accompanying you and protect you from bad spirits, the offerings given would be a blessing to them

[sirtanchannel]

Been waiting on a video about hungry ghost festival for awhile now being its a religious channel 😆, appreciate the work
quite the popular festival here in Singapore, but it is in decline