What's the difference between the Ghost Festival and the Lantern Festival?
The Ghost Festival is one of the most important traditional festivals for ancestor worship in China, while the Lantern Festival, also known as the Yuanxiao Festival, is a festival celebrating the Spring Festival during the first month of the lunar calendar.
Ghost Festival:
The Ghost Festival is a traditional Chinese festival, also known as the Mid-July Festival, the 14th of July, the Ancestral Worship Festival, the Ullambana Festival, and the Earth Official Festival. The customs of the festival mainly include ancestral worship, releasing river lanterns, worshipping the souls of the dead, burning paper money, and worshiping the land god. "Ghost Festival" is the term used by Taoism, while the common people refer to it as "Mid-July" (or "14th of July"). Its origin can be traced back to the ancient ancestors' worship and related seasonal sacrifices. The festival period is related to the ancient culture's theory of yin-yang alternation. In the Book of Changes, "seven" is a number representing change, a number of rebirth. The seventh month is a lucky month and a month of filial piety. The middle of the seventh month is a folk celebration of the harvest and gratitude to the earth. Many crops are mature, and the people traditionally offer sacrifices with new rice to their ancestors, reporting the harvest. This festival is a cultural traditional holiday for remembering ancestors, and its cultural core is respecting ancestors and being filial.
It is believed by the folk that ancestors return home to visit their descendants during the mid-July. Therefore, ancestral worship is necessary. This act of honoring ancestors reflects the traditional ethics of being respectful and remembering one's roots, a cultural tradition of appreciating the ancestors. At this time of the small autumn harvest, it is also a good opportunity to share the joy of the harvest with the ancestors. The ritual of worship is usually held in the evening of the middle of July. On ordinary days, the ancestral tablets are not moved. However, during the "mid-July" worship, each ancestral tablet is respectfully taken out one by one and placed on a special offering table. Then, incense is inserted in front of each ancestral tablet, and three meals are offered daily at morning, noon, and night. Due to differences in local customs, the way of celebrating the festival varies, and the timing may also differ. [2] [5] [27-28]
2. Burning Paper
Among the folk beliefs of the Ghost Festival, the most prominent practice is burning paper. According to legend, paper in the world of the living is like money in the world of the dead, and burning paper is a way to send money to deceased relatives. When burning paper at a grave, some paper should be left and burned at a crossroads, in order to give alms to homeless ghosts, so that they will not rob the money given to their ancestors.
3. Praying for a Good Harvest
The ritual of offering food to the hungry and praying for a good harvest often go hand in hand. During the night of the hungry offering, every household should burn incense and pray for a bountiful rice harvest in front of their own door, and insert the incense sticks into the ground, which is called "planting fields" (like planting rice), and the more you plant, the better, symbolizing a bountiful autumn harvest.
4. Burning Incense and Firecrackers
On the night of the 14th or 15th of the seventh lunar month, incense is burned and firecrackers are set off outside the house, while also burning "packages" (also called "offering packages").
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Lantern Festival:
The Lantern Festival, also known as the Yuanxiao Festival, the Small First Month, or the Lantern Festival, is one of China's traditional festivals, held on the 15th day of the first lunar month each year. The first month is called the "Yuan" month in the lunar calendar, and the ancients referred to "night" as "Xiao," so the 15th day of the first month is called "Yuanxiao." According to the Taoist concept of the "Three Yuan," the 15th day of the first month is also called the "Lantern Festival." The customs of the Lantern Festival have long been centered around the lively and festive tradition of viewing lanterns.
What are the customs and traditions of the Ghost Festival?
1. Ancestral WorshipIt is believed by the folk that ancestors return home to visit their descendants during the mid-July. Therefore, ancestral worship is necessary. This act of honoring ancestors reflects the traditional ethics of being respectful and remembering one's roots, a cultural tradition of appreciating the ancestors. At this time of the small autumn harvest, it is also a good opportunity to share the joy of the harvest with the ancestors. The ritual of worship is usually held in the evening of the middle of July. On ordinary days, the ancestral tablets are not moved. However, during the "mid-July" worship, each ancestral tablet is respectfully taken out one by one and placed on a special offering table. Then, incense is inserted in front of each ancestral tablet, and three meals are offered daily at morning, noon, and night. Due to differences in local customs, the way of celebrating the festival varies, and the timing may also differ. [2] [5] [27-28]
2. Burning Paper
Among the folk beliefs of the Ghost Festival, the most prominent practice is burning paper. According to legend, paper in the world of the living is like money in the world of the dead, and burning paper is a way to send money to deceased relatives. When burning paper at a grave, some paper should be left and burned at a crossroads, in order to give alms to homeless ghosts, so that they will not rob the money given to their ancestors.
3. Praying for a Good Harvest
The ritual of offering food to the hungry and praying for a good harvest often go hand in hand. During the night of the hungry offering, every household should burn incense and pray for a bountiful rice harvest in front of their own door, and insert the incense sticks into the ground, which is called "planting fields" (like planting rice), and the more you plant, the better, symbolizing a bountiful autumn harvest.
4. Burning Incense and Firecrackers
On the night of the 14th or 15th of the seventh lunar month, incense is burned and firecrackers are set off outside the house, while also burning "packages" (also called "offering packages").
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