Every year on the fifteenth day of the seventh month in the lunar calendar, it is an important festival in Chinese tradition - the Ghost Festival. However, "Hungry Ghost Festival" is the name of Chinese Taoism; on the fifteenth day of the seventh month in the lunar calendar, Today, Buddhism calls it "Obon Festival", while folk calls it "Ghost Festival". Of course, the Taoist Ghost Festival, the Buddhist Bon Festival and the folk Ghost Festival have different expressions. However, these three festivals also have the same cultural connotation of worshiping ancestors and advocating loyalty.
1. The Taoist "Hungry Ghost Festival"
According to the cultural logic of Taoism, the time and space of a year should be divided into two halves, upper and lower yin and yang. Moreover, Chinese Taoism believes that the three elements that nourish all things in the world are The basic elements are sky, earth and water. Therefore, Taoism regards the first half of the year as the Heavenly Official and the second half as the Earthly Official. What needs to be explained here is that the "official" mentioned here does not refer to the "official" of human officials, but refers to the segments in the flow of time and space, similar to the "official" in the Chinese Go game. official".
Chinese Taoism mainly originated in areas with developed agricultural civilization in China. Therefore, Chinese Taoism has always believed that the sky is mysterious and the earth is mysterious, and the earth is mysterious. That is to say, because Chinese agricultural civilization pays attention to the important role of the two elements of earth and water in all human beings, the Chinese Taoist cultural concept has always contained the "ontology" and "epistemology" of observing the world with the earth as the center and its " Methodology”. According to the Taoist worldview, Taoism customarily calls the fifteenth day of the first lunar month of the "Tianguan" period (the first half of the year) the "Shangyuan Festival"; "Hungry Ghost Festival"; because the earth contains water and water affects the earth, October 15th in the middle of the second half of the year is the "Xiayuan Festival". The three elements of upper, middle and lower constitute the Taoist trinity system understanding of the world.
Chinese Taoism is different from many religions in the world. Many religions in the world are the unity of God and man, or like Christianity, they focus on the "incarnation" of the Trinity, which makes religious communicators often highly deified. The purpose of Taoist missionary work in China is very clear. The communicators of Taoist teachings are not gods but human beings. Therefore, the moral ethics of Taoist teachings are "teaching students in accordance with their aptitude." For people with high intelligence, the principles of the "Tao Te Ching" are clearly explained. For those who are not intelligent enough or do not have much time to deeply reflect on their own moral and ethical construction, they write stories to explain the truth. "Education through entertainment" is the source. Taoist missionary methods in China.
The "Hungry Ghost Festival" of Chinese Taoism is actually a festival to spread moral ethics, that is, to encourage people to pay attention to moral cultivation on this day. On the Hungry Ghost Festival, people who have thoughts and time will gather together to study Laozi's "Tao Te Ching", communicate with each other, meditate and reflect on themselves. For ordinary believers, Taoism has created some stories to "educate and entertain". For example, Taoism fabricated a story about a man named Chen Ziqin who married the Dragon King's daughter and gave birth to three children named "Tian Guan, Di Guan, and Shui Guan" on the fifteenth day of the first lunar month, the fifteenth day of July, and the fifteenth day of October. This child, these "three officials" are in charge of the three tasks of blessing, pardoning sins, and resolving misfortunes in the human world. They have boundless power. They have to patrol the human world during these three days to examine whether people's moral character is good or bad. For those moral They will bless those with good qualities, otherwise, they will punish them. However, Chinese Taoism is a very tolerant religion and gives people the opportunity to change and renew themselves at any time. Therefore, the "Hungry Ghost Festival" is not just a festival to reward the good and punish the bad, but mainly a "Pardon Festival". Therefore, the "Hungry Ghost Festival" is also the "Festival of Penance" and the "Festival of Atonement" among Chinese festivals. People who have sinned during the year can use various rituals to review themselves and ask for forgiveness from heaven and earth on this day. forgive.
2. The Buddhist "Obon Festival"
Legend has it that a man named Mulian dreamed that his deceased mother fell into the ranks of hungry ghosts, so , he delivered meals to his mother, but failed every time. Mulian told the Buddha about this, and the Buddha advised him to make offerings to many monks and do good deeds in order to free his mother from his sins in the underworld. Mulian made an Obon basin (Sanskrit means "rescuing the upside down") on the fifteenth day of the seventh month. So, The Buddhist monks collectively recited sutras for Mulian's mother to achieve transcendence, which freed her mother from the sea of ??suffering. It can be seen that the Bon festival on July 15th in Buddhism has two meanings. One is to educate people to make offerings to religious monks, and the other is to educate people to do more good deeds to transcend the sins of their ancestors and promote filial piety.
3. Folk "Ghost Festival"
July 15th is the "Ghost Festival". This is probably because folk people have to spend the first half of July to the 15th. During the festival, paper money was burned and sacrifices were made to ancestors. This atmosphere of dialogue between human and soul gave rise to the theory of ghost festivals.
In the Chinese Folk Ghost Festival, the first day of the seventh lunar month is the opening of the ghost gate, and the souls of the deceased ancestors will return to the world to check whether the descendants are good and evil, and the descendants will also take the opportunity to sacrifice them; on the fifteenth day of the seventh month, For Ghost Festival. After July 15th, the gate of hell is closed. Before July 30th, if someone has not offered sacrifices to his ancestors, his ancestors will wander to the world in one year. ...
It should be said that China's ghost culture is quite developed. We cannot simply say it is some feudal superstition and knock it down with one stroke. It contains a very profound moral concept, and it has also had a profound influence on China. Moral and ethical construction has played a very important role, and has also played a very important role in boosting a country's economy and employment. For example, the paper incense and candle industry that was common in the past has solved the employment problem of a group of people.
Fengdu Ghost Town has been a tourist attraction since ancient times, bringing great economic development opportunities to Fengdu, Chongqing.
Since the Chinese Taoist Ghost Festival, the Buddhist Obon Festival and the folk Ghost Festival all have similar cultural connotations such as rewarding good and punishing evil, worshiping martyrs, and advocating loyalty and filial piety, so, Since the Tang and Song Dynasties, July 15th has also been borrowed by some local governments and families and turned into a festival for collective sacrifices to martyrs and loyal and filial people. This means that in Chinese history, July 15th is also a festival for national sacrifices. and the days of loyal, filial, and virtuous people in the local area. The loyal, filial, and virtuous people mentioned here do not only refer to the loyal and filial people in the category of family ethics, but also refer to those who have historically served the country, collectives, local politics, and People who have made outstanding contributions to economic, cultural development and national and local security.
Everyone knows that there are no ghosts in the world. The ghosts in people's hearts are actually living people missing their dead relatives. In Tuxiang, the custom of worshiping ghosts and worshiping ghosts is very strong. In the long history of development, every family has lost countless relatives. He (she) leaves the human world and goes to the elusive world of the underworld. Losing a loved one is certainly the saddest and most painful thing. In order to express their infinite longing for their loved ones, native people put this beautiful feeling of longing in the early morning of July. Therefore, on this beautiful day of July half, it is the most solemn and solemn custom of native people to pay homage to their deceased relatives and express their grief.
On July 15th, every family got up early. Go to the mountain to pick a lot of tung oil leaves and use them to wrap the cooked glutinous fire cakes. After the cakes are wrapped, they are steamed in a pot and then placed on a large table in the main room to offer sacrifices to relatives. The cakes wrapped in tung oil leaves are soft and tender, exuding a lingering fragrance of tung oil leaves. After offering sacrifices to ancestors and relatives, they can be eaten by adults or children. At this time, the family is immersed in beautiful memories. among.
After the sun sets, every household is going all out to prepare money, paper, incense and candles for their deceased relatives, solemnly write the names of each deceased relative on red paper, and then place them on the ground. Burn together with money, paper, incense and candles. In order for each deceased relative to receive a generous gift, when burning paper money, it must be arranged according to the age of the relative and the order in which they died. Each person can take one pile, and each pile of money must be placed on paper. Write the names in advance so there is no confusion. While paper money was being burned, a grand Lantern Festival for the Ghost Festival was being held in the ancestral hall of Zhaizi Ancestral Temple. Under the auspices of the clan leader, various ghost lanterns and magic lanterns were arranged in order. There are mainly ghost king lanterns, Zhongxu lanterns, Pluto lanterns, judge little ghost lanterns, and bull-headed and horse-faced lanterns. In the shrine there are mainly Guanyin lanterns, Arhat lanterns, Samsung lanterns, Sancai lanterns, Antarctic fairy lanterns, Jade Emperor lanterns, Queen Mother lanterns, Yaochi lanterns and so on. These lanterns of different shapes and sizes are all arranged according to their sizes, and then Tu Laosi chants incantations and offers sacrifices. After the ceremony is over, these lanterns and money, paper, and incense candles are burned together. The elders of every household in the village put the tablets of their ancestors on it, took it home and placed it on the sacred ridge. This is the end of the Ghost Festival in July
Don’t go out at night. According to Chinese custom, July is called the ghost month, which means that the gate of ghosts is always open in this month. Especially the ghost festival has the heaviest yin energy. Ghosts travel at night, so you should not stay outside on this day. It is a taboo not to go home at night.
2 Don’t look back when you hear a call. When walking in an inaccessible place, if you hear someone calling your name, don’t answer hastily. Make sure you know who is calling and who is answering, so as not to be plagued by bad luck.
3 Avoid wearing bells and wind chimes. Avoid wearing bells, wind chimes and other things that attract ghosts. It is best not to hang them on the bedside. The sound of wind chimes and bells can communicate between the yin and yang worlds, and it is easy to attract bad things. Sleeping is the most vulnerable time to be "invaded". If you encounter supernatural events such as ghosts pressing on you or hitting walls, don't panic, concentrate all your attention and open your eyes.
4. Don’t swim alone in the water. Ghost moon and water ghosts are active. Just in case, it’s best not to swim alone in the water. It’s best to go together or have someone accompany you.
5 Don’t pick up things randomly. Some things are usually used to pay homage to the dead. For example, road money is used to buy bull heads and horse noodles, and sacrificial fruits are used to comfort the dead. These things have bad connotations. It is best to Don't touch.
6 Don’t burn ghost paper on non-specific occasions. The ghost paper is for worshiping ancestors, and the gold paper is burned for gods. On the Ghost Festival, most people will burn some paper money in advance and wait until the next day. Clean up the mess. Therefore, the result of burning the underworld paper will only make the yin energy worse, so you usually choose the same time and place, and you must not burn the underworld paper at a time other than a specific occasion.
7 Avoid taking pictures at night with things like mirrors or mobile phones. It is easy to catch unclean things. If you take pictures at night, you may take pictures of unclean things, which is equivalent to contamination. If you pick up something unlucky, your fortune will also decline.
8 People who are guilty of Tai Sui should avoid going out. Those who are guilty of Tai Sui are bound to be in trouble if they are not blessed, and they belong to a group of people with relatively low fortune. As the old saying goes, "If a person is unlucky, his teeth will become clogged when he drinks water." Your fortune is already sluggish, so it's better to be cautious. It is best for people who are guilty of Tai Sui to wear a natal Buddha to transform their negative energy and ensure peace. The four jade stones that can ward off evil spirits and transform evil spirits. The gate of hell will be opened during the Ghost Festival, and the ghosts in the underworld will be released. Ghosts who have descendants and descendants to offer sacrifices go home to receive incense and offerings; ghosts without owners wander around, wandering wherever humans can go.
People with light horoscopes, weak bodies, and those with unfavorable fortunes are most susceptible to intrusion, so it is best to wear some energy jade stones for self-defense.