How do you keep ghosts from being meddlesome and mischievous? Give them food and entertainment. That's the idea behind Singapore's Hungry Ghost Festival.
Singapore is a melange of Asian cultures. It's a beautiful blend of modernity and old world tradition. And there's nothing that captures those harmonious clashes quite like the annual Hungry Ghost Festival.
Similar to the Western tradition of Halloween, the festival takes place on the 15th night of the seventh month (known as Ghost Month) of the Asian lunar calendar.
Though it's celebrated across the Asian continent, Singaporeans really takes the festivities to a whole other level.
What is the Hungry Ghost Festival?
The Hungry Ghost Festival is a time when Buddhists and Taoists believe the ghosts of ancestors roam the living world. To keep the ghosts from being meddlesome and mischievous, as they are wont to do if ignored, the living provide food, entertainment, and other material offerings to appease their departed ancestors.
In Singapore, these offerings take on a whole new life. Simple food turns into multi-course feasts and light entertainment turns into large-scale concerts featuring top Asian Pop acts.
Singaporeans put the hungry in Hungry Ghost Festival
Temples at this time of the year are filled with families and relatives of those who have passed, as people will prepare foods as offerings to their ghost relatives. Throughout Singapore you may encounter plates of food (oranges, rice cakes, fruits, sweets) by the roadside. Do not eat these offerings as they are for the hungry ghosts and getting in the way of a ghost and its food can have its consequences as it is said to bring bad luck.
All over Singapore, annual ‘auction dinners’ take place to promote good fortune. Auction dinners combine the festival’s spirit of charity, food and fanfare.
Usually organised by temple groups and communities associations, the dinner begins with a group prayer followed by an offering of a range of foods in red pales to the hungry ghosts. These offerings range from something simple like fruit, canned foods, and packaged rice to something more elaborate like a suckling pig! Many Singaporeans will also leave offerings like these along pathways in the lead up to the service.
Following the service, families will take home a red pale of food to consume at home in the coming days for good luck.
The members then assemble for an 8 to 10-course dinner, after which an auction of donated auspicious items are is held. Winning an item from the auction is believed to bring good luck to the recipient for the next year. The proceeds from the auction are then donated to a local charity. Most dinner tables will set an extra plate of food for their deceased relatives, as an additional offering to the spirits.
No one rocks out quite like the Singaporeans
Entertainment is just as important as the food during the Hungry Ghost Festival. The city becomes the stage for world-class acts. From modern Asian pop groups performing hits in both English and native Asian languages to traditional Chinese opera or getai, the city really brings the party.
It’s also a time of penance and respect
For Singaporeans, the Ghost month is a time to practice austerity and respect. Considered an inauspicious month within the Asian lunar calendar, new projects are suspended, weddings held off, and overseas trips postponed until the month is over.
Other superstitions held during this time include avoiding old trees, swimming pools, home renovations, or leaving chopsticks stabbed into a bowl of rice, as the belief is wandering ghosts will maim and curse unsuspecting bystanders.
To counteract some of these bad omens, material possession like cars, homes, jewellery and cash money are replicated in paper form and burned to appease the dead. In fact, metal bins are placed around the town for Singaporeans to place their ‘paper belongings’ ahead of the festival day.
(via Snippets.com) Source: Snippets
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