Talk:Ghost Festival

Holidays High‑importance

	Holidays portal This article is within the scope of WikiProject Holidays, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of holidays on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.HolidaysWikipedia:WikiProject HolidaysTemplate:WikiProject HolidaysHolidays articles
High	This article has been rated as High-importance on the project's importance scale.

Buddhism Mid‑importance

	This article falls within the scope of WikiProject Buddhism, an attempt to promote better coordination, content distribution, and cross-referencing between pages dealing with Buddhism. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page for more details on the projects.BuddhismWikipedia:WikiProject BuddhismTemplate:WikiProject BuddhismBuddhism articles
Mid	This article has been rated as Mid-importance on the project's importance scale.

Death Mid‑importance

	This article is within the scope of WikiProject Death, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of Death on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.DeathWikipedia:WikiProject DeathTemplate:WikiProject DeathDeath articles
Mid	This article has been rated as Mid-importance on the project's importance scale.

China High‑importance

	China portal This article is within the scope of WikiProject China, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of China related articles on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.ChinaWikipedia:WikiProject ChinaTemplate:WikiProject ChinaChina-related articles
High	This article has been rated as High-importance on the project's importance scale.

Vietnam High‑importance

	Vietnam portal This article is part of WikiProject Vietnam, an attempt to create a comprehensive, neutral, and accurate representation of Vietnam on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page.VietnamWikipedia:WikiProject VietnamTemplate:WikiProject VietnamVietnam articles
High	This article has been rated as High-importance on the project's importance scale.

Taiwan High‑importance

	Taiwan portal This article is within the scope of WikiProject Taiwan, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of Taiwan on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.TaiwanWikipedia:WikiProject TaiwanTemplate:WikiProject TaiwanTaiwan articles
High	This article has been rated as High-importance on the project's importance scale.

Festivals

	Holidays portal This article is within the scope of WikiProject Festivals, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of Festivals on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.FestivalsWikipedia:WikiProject FestivalsTemplate:WikiProject FestivalsFestivals articles
???	This article has not yet received a rating on the importance scale.

A fact from this article was featured on Wikipedia's Main Page in the On this day section on 11 dates. [show]

August 30, 2004, August 19, 2005, August 8, 2006, August 26, 2007, August 15, 2008, September 3, 2009, August 24, 2010, August 14, 2011, August 31, 2012, August 30, 2023, and August 18, 2024

Tip: Anchors are case-sensitive in most browsers.

This article links to one or more target anchors that no longer exist.

[[Japanese calendar#Seasonal days|seasonal day]] The anchor (#Seasonal days) is no longer available because it was deleted by a user before.

Please help fix the broken anchors. You can remove this template after fixing the problems. | Reporting errors

Untitled

Growing up in Hong Kong, I haven't heard of the term Zhong Yuan Jie, but Ghost Festival was a big thing, and it was celebrated on the 14th of the 7th month in the Lunar Calendar.

Isn't it the 15th of the month, not the fourteenth? That's what the "Chinese Calendar" page says -- there must be an error in one of these two pages. According to the Hong Kong Observatory, today (August 19th) is the 15th day, and, as I write this, there are people burning shit on the streets outside my apartment (in Dalian). (unsigned comment)

I've added 鬼月 as another name as that's the only thing i've ever heard it called. Can't say I've ever heard 中元节 here on the mainland. Yung Wei (talk) 12:07, 23 July 2009 (UTC)[reply]

This article is confusing. Is the festival on the fourteenth or the fifteenth day of the seventh month? In the beginning, the first paragraph states fourteenth, then it states fifteenth in the next sentence. Furthermore, why on earth is Qingming suddenly mentioned in the second paragraph? Isn't that a completely different festival? Could somebody who actually knows what they're talking about take a look at this article and fix it? Wolf ODonnell (talk)

It is both, on the fourteen and the fifteen, the Daoist 'celebrates' it generally on the fourteen whilst the Buddhist on fifteen. The namesake of 中元节 actually dates back to northern wei, despite of what Yung Wei wrote. Agreed with Wolf ODonnell that Qingming shouldn't come into the intro, as both festival are about filial piety. The difference according to the Daoists, is that spirits do not roam the realm of Livings during Qingming- they are limited to the vicinity of their tombs or graves; during 中元节, they are. I'd like to include something to that effect however there is no citable source. (talk)

I noticed there is a comment inside the main article. I've removed it since it belongs here. The comment in question, "In which Buddhist sutra, did the Buddha set on the 14th day of 7th lunar month??? Ullambana or Zhong Yuan Jie is in fact on the fullmoon day (15th day) of the 7th month); the reason the rituals practiced today is on the 14th day is because it's customarily practised on the midnight of the 15th, very much like the celebration of Jade Emperor's birthday which starts on the eve of the ninth day of the first lunar month. Due to long-hour ceremony of ancestral worship and charitable rituals for the hungry ghost, many started to do it on the 14th day instead." Wasill37 (talk) 00:42, 12 September 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Similarity to El Día de los Muertos (day of the dead)

I would like to note that El Día de los Muertos (day of the dead) seems more similar to QingMing Festival (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qingming_Festival) than the Ghost Festival.

If there is consensus, can we remove "The Ghost Festival shares some similarities with the predominantly Mexican observance of El Día de los Muertos."? Please comment.

Well, Qing Ming seems more like, mmm, All Souls Day (as in: the time when you go to your ancestors' graves and tidy them up) while Ghost Festival is more like Dia de los Muertos (as in: when the spirits come back to check out their descendants). I realize All Souls and Dia de los Muertos are the same day on the calendar, but I always associate the Mexican festival with the skeleton decor and the All Souls with Catholics in general. -grant (talk) 15:19, 28 August 2009 (UTC)[reply]

I certainly believe the lines that mention Dia de los Muertos and Chinese Halloween should be removed altogether, or at the very least, removed from the lede. There is no direct relationship between the Dia de los Muertos and Ghost Festival. It's equivalent to mentioning Chinese Red Egg party and Easter in the same article - why not? they both use eggs and celebrate renewal of life. But no, we don't. One does not relate to the other. They don't share common origins, nor do they "borrow" traditions. They came about independently. And where in that reference does anyone mention Ghost Festival being called "Chinese Halloween"? That reference is irrelevant. I've never heard that term used. I say we remove the paragraph about El Dia de los Muertos and Chinese Halloween. Paranoid123 (talk) 15:08, 26 March 2010 (UTC)[reply]

I've removed the lines mentioning Dia de los Muertos and Chinese Halloween for the above reason. Paranoid123 (talk) 17:45, 11 May 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Two festivals confused

The accuracy of this article is questionable, at least vis-a-vis the Chinese version of the festival. According to the Hong Kong Tourism Board's website, the "Hungry Ghost Festival" ("Yue Laan Festival", 盂蘭節 ^[1]), which occurs on the 15th day of the 7th lunar month, is distinct from the "Autumn Remembrance Festival" ("Chung Yeung Festival", 重陽節 ^[2]), which occurs on the 9th day of the 9th lunar month. The former is where the Chinese burn paper goods and make food offerings to appease spirits who are released from the netherworld on this day each year to revisit their former families. Traditional Chinese belief is that burning paper representations of material goods and money will provide spirits material wealth in the afterlife. If a family should fail to do so, the spirits of their loved ones will become impoverished in the underworld (and thus hungry) and will return on this particular day to haunt their negligent families. The latter is where the Chinese pay respects to their dearly departed by tending their graves, which traditionally required hiking out to rural burial plots. In Hong Kong, these have become an opportunity for a family outing and picnic. There is nothing peculiarly happy, unhappy, delusional or frightening about either. At least no more than any other belief system about the afterlife. They are just Chinese customs. Ejanne (talk) 11:30, 4 January 2010 (UTC)[reply]

References

^ [1]
^ [2]

Vietnamese

I'm tagging this article as C-class for WikiProject Vietnam, since the Vietnamese section of this article seems lacking—very little discussion of the differences between Tết Trung Nguyên and the Chinese version. Actually, it seems as though all the regional variations of the holiday could use more explanation. Even in the case of O-Bon, which has its own article, there can be a slightly longer mention in this article. Hopefully someone more knowledgeable than I can fill these in. --dragfyre_ʞןɐʇc 16:35, 8 June 2010 (UTC)[reply]

About the Hong Kong version

Every country seems to have their own version, is it really worth having a combined page trying to show that it is somehow the same? http://www.hkfastfacts.com/Chinese%20Festivals/ghost.htm 218.103.252.196 (talk) 02:09, 2 September 2013 (UTC)[reply]

SCMP's article on Hungry Ghost festival, "Hong Kong’s Hungry Ghost Festival: all you ever wanted to know" by Mark Sharp on 27 August 2015. http://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/article/1852741/hong-kongs-hungry-ghost-festival-all-you-ever-wanted-know

Linnah (talk) 12:12, 27 August 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Zhong Yuan & Chugen: mention the obvious connection

Zhong Yuan and Chuugen are the Chinese(Mandarin) and Japanese(on'yomi) reading of the same word (中元) written in Chinese characters("Kanji" in Japanese). The connection, while pretty obvious for anyone knowing the Chinese characters, isn't apparent to the typical English reader. Of course, even if it's the same festival the customs are different, but at least the connection is worth mentioning. --Ahyangyi (talk) 17:37, 30 June 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Public nudity/stripping?

When in Taiwan in the 90s I was told that exhibitions of public nudity were an old feature of ghost month celebrations, though these were said to be increasingly rare at the time. The supposed purpose of this was to propitiate the ghosts. The article makes no mention of this. The purpose of this post is to request feedback from better informed editors as to whether it would be worthwhile searching for references with a view to documenting this aspect of the tradition. Qemist (talk) 06:40, 6 September 2017 (UTC)[reply]

External links modified

Hello fellow Wikipedians,

I have just modified 3 external links on Ghost Festival. Please take a moment to review my edit. If you have any questions, or need the bot to ignore the links, or the page altogether, please visit this simple FaQ for additional information. I made the following changes:

When you have finished reviewing my changes, you may follow the instructions on the template below to fix any issues with the URLs.

This message was posted before February 2018. After February 2018, "External links modified" talk page sections are no longer generated or monitored by InternetArchiveBot. No special action is required regarding these talk page notices, other than regular verification using the archive tool instructions below. Editors have permission to delete these "External links modified" talk page sections if they want to de-clutter talk pages, but see the RfC before doing mass systematic removals. This message is updated dynamically through the template {{source check}} (last update: 5 June 2024).

If you have discovered URLs which were erroneously considered dead by the bot, you can report them with this tool.
If you found an error with any archives or the URLs themselves, you can fix them with this tool.

Cheers.—InternetArchiveBot (Report bug) 15:16, 15 October 2017 (UTC)[reply]

External links modified

Hello fellow Wikipedians,

I have just modified 3 external links on Ghost Festival. Please take a moment to review my edit. If you have any questions, or need the bot to ignore the links, or the page altogether, please visit this simple FaQ for additional information. I made the following changes:

Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20101203024217/http://www.gio.gov.tw/info/festival_c/ghost_e/html/ghost2.htm to http://www.gio.gov.tw/info/festival_c/ghost_e/html/ghost2.htm
Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20101229022751/http://www.gio.gov.tw/info/festival_c/ghost_e/ghost.htm to http://www.gio.gov.tw/info/festival_c/ghost_e/ghost.htm
Corrected formatting/usage for http://www.bdkamerica.org/digital/dBET_ApocryphalScriptures_2005.pdf

When you have finished reviewing my changes, you may follow the instructions on the template below to fix any issues with the URLs.

This message was posted before February 2018. After February 2018, "External links modified" talk page sections are no longer generated or monitored by InternetArchiveBot. No special action is required regarding these talk page notices, other than regular verification using the archive tool instructions below. Editors have permission to delete these "External links modified" talk page sections if they want to de-clutter talk pages, but see the RfC before doing mass systematic removals. This message is updated dynamically through the template {{source check}} (last update: 5 June 2024).

If you have discovered URLs which were erroneously considered dead by the bot, you can report them with this tool.
If you found an error with any archives or the URLs themselves, you can fix them with this tool.

Cheers.—InternetArchiveBot (Report bug) 11:56, 11 December 2017 (UTC)[reply]

External links modified (January 2018)

Hello fellow Wikipedians,

I have just modified one external link on Ghost Festival. Please take a moment to review my edit. If you have any questions, or need the bot to ignore the links, or the page altogether, please visit this simple FaQ for additional information. I made the following changes:

Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20101029060207/http://go2taiwan.net/monthly_selection.php?sqno=14 to http://www.go2taiwan.net/monthly_selection.php?sqno=14

When you have finished reviewing my changes, you may follow the instructions on the template below to fix any issues with the URLs.

This message was posted before February 2018. After February 2018, "External links modified" talk page sections are no longer generated or monitored by InternetArchiveBot. No special action is required regarding these talk page notices, other than regular verification using the archive tool instructions below. Editors have permission to delete these "External links modified" talk page sections if they want to de-clutter talk pages, but see the RfC before doing mass systematic removals. This message is updated dynamically through the template {{source check}} (last update: 5 June 2024).

If you have discovered URLs which were erroneously considered dead by the bot, you can report them with this tool.
If you found an error with any archives or the URLs themselves, you can fix them with this tool.

Cheers.—InternetArchiveBot (Report bug) 11:28, 22 January 2018 (UTC)[reply]

[1] [1]

[2] [2]

[1]

[2]