Auspicious ceremonies, late nights out and picking flowers are big no-nos this time of the year when spirits roam the earth. CHAI MEI LING, TAN CHOE CHOE and WONG YING SIM learn the do’s and don’ts of the Hungry Ghost Festival and what happens when rules are broken.

WE officially start sharing our world with denizens of the netherworld last Monday (13 Aug 07).

The gates of Hell are now open for spirits to walk the earth — it’s the start of the Hungry Ghost festival.

They will be open the entire seventh month of the lunar calendar, allowing the wandering spirits to party around town and devour offerings prepared by the Chinese community.

And while they’re at it, humans are advised to minimise contact with them to remain safe and sound.

Hence, many Chinese refrain from holding auspicious ceremonies like weddings and birthdays.

But these aren’t the only don’ts.

It is also unwise to chop down trees because spirits take shelter beneath trees and bridges, says Taoist master Go Bai Lin.

Ghosts like to glide along walls, hide in dark, damp places and for some single female spirits, flowers are their favourite hangouts.

“Guys should refrain from picking any flower on a whim,” says Go.

For that’s how some female ghosts choose their life partner. The man who picks the flower has to marry her.

Some families prefer to stay home when night falls, for that’s when spirits make their rounds.

Most are harmless spirits out for a tuck-in, but those who died a gory death may be out looking for “replacements”, says temple caretaker and medium Wong Yoke Lan.

Wong is popular among Taoists for being able to speak in the tongue of the Jiang Tai Gong deity when in trance.

“With no one to appease their souls, these wandering spirits look for someone to die the same way they did,” she says.

So incidents like road crashes, drowning, fire and freak accidents tend to occur more this month.

“The victims will take on the burden of the spirits’ cruel fate of life, freeing the spirits to be considered for reincarnation.” These vengeful spirits strike during the first, third, seventh or ninth year after their departure, says Wong.

Spirits of ancestors, aborted foetuses and children should also not be forgotten.

Wong says a miscarried or aborted foetus can return to haunt his parents and prevent the mother from conceiving again, because it is very hard for foetuses which lack the wisdom of a fully-grown human to be reincarnated.

“Foetuses who exhausted three chances at reincarnation will not let their parents lead a happy life.” The family will be plagued by misfortunes — failed business, broken marriage and chaos at home.

The parents should hold soulappeasing rituals in temples to guide these spirits back to their realm.

“Once, when conducting such a ritual for a couple, I heard a child’s voice whispered into my ear, saying, ‘You didn’t want me, and now you want another baby’,” says Wong.

Every year, the faithful will throng the temple to observe the festival and bring along a myriad of food and Hell notes as offerings.

Similarly, some do so on a smaller scale at home, which is done mostly on the 14th day of the seventh month in the lunar calendar, which falls on Aug 26 this year.

They take to the streets and line up dishes such as chicken, roast duck, rice, vegetables, bean curd, sweets, fruits and biscuits in front of their house, along with lighted joss sticks and candles.

These will be burnt with Hell notes for the spirits who visit such households.

Wong and Go say this ceremony should only be done at night and cannot last past midnight.

Children and babies should be kept indoors as they have the ability to see these spirits, and can fall sick when they come in contact with these ‘visitors’.

Spirits who take a liking to babies will try to cuddle and touch them, which eventually will cause them to fall ill.

Names should not be called out during the ritual and observers should not look back at the spot once the ceremony is over.

“Make sure the amount of offerings is not any less than the previous year’s and don’t cease to perform this ritual once you’ve started it,” says Go.

Humans should also not consume food offerings placed on the ground.

Normally, spirits do not enter one’s home, unless there’s a storm.

“Spirits are terrified of lightning and thunder. When they make a mad scramble into your house and accidentally bump into you, that’s when you’ll be sick,” says Wong.

He ferried some home

WHEN Go Bai Lin was invited to look at the feng shui of a house in Banting in 2005, he frowned.

It wasn’t the right time for consultations as it was the Hungry Ghost Festival.

But the house owner insisted, so Go relented.

He felt a sense of unease the moment he stepped into the house in Morib that afternoon — something wasn’t quite right.

The intuitive Taoist master says he wasn’t able to “feel” or “see” anything that day.

And he couldn’t use the luopan (feng shui compass) as the equipment contains strong sha chi (killing force) and could harm spirits around it.

Go smelt the unmistakable odour of salted fish but no one was cooking that day.

More interestingly, no one else could smell the strange odour, which followed him all over the house — even into the bathroom.

Go began to suspect the smell had nothing to do with salted fish at all.

“It was the smell of the deceased,” he says.

It even trailed him into the car, and all the way home.

“I had my car washed before reaching home that night but it still didn’t go away.” The next day, a strange sight greeted him as he was about to board his car.

“The car was rocking slightly by itself,” he says.

Convinced that he’d got a few “uninvited guests” home, Go decided to ferry them to the nearest poh tor ceremony in Selayang.

Poh tor is a merrymaking ceremony organised for visitors from the other world, which includes opera performances and the burning of offerings.

Transportation back to the spiritual world is usually provided, which comes in the form of paper cars and ships.

“I got into the car but nearly gagged. There was an overpowering smell, like that of ‘death’ hanging in the air.

“But I calmly voiced aloud that I knew I had ‘visitors’, and I’d arrange for them to go home safely”.

While driving, Go says his car felt heavy.

Upon reaching, he opened all his car doors and invited the spirits out.

“I said, ‘We are here. I can only help you to this extent. There are food here, and cars and ships to take you home’,” Go says.

When Go stepped into his car later, the odour was gone.

Two days later, Go’s car registration number struck the second prize in a lottery and Go believes it was the spirits’ way of thanking him.

“I think they had been left unattended for many years. No one prayed to them, so they had no money and means to go back to where they belong.” Apparently, the family in Morib never observed the Hungry Ghost Festival; in fact, no one in the neighbourhood did.

“After a person passes away, he needs to go through the proper channel in order to go to the next stage in life.

“Families have to arrange for a burial, during which a Taoist or Buddhist master will guide him to the other world.

“Probably the spirits who boarded my car were never given that ritual.”

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Mysterious origins

NOBODY really knows for sure the origin of the Hungry Ghost festival.

But it is said the Chinese have celebrated it since the Liang Dynasty (502-557 AD).

In some literature, it is closely linked to the Buddhist Ghost festival — Ullambana — which is also celebrated in the seventh month of the lunar calendar.

The Wikipedia says Ullambana can be traced back to a story of Maudgalyayana (or Moggalana), a Buddhist disciple, who saved his mother from the dreaded realm of Hell.

It is said that after achieving spiritual enlightenment, he found his mother had been reborn a Hungry Ghost in a lower realm.

She could not eat for her throat was thin, yet she was always hungry for she had a huge belly, punishment for having been greedy and selfish in life.

To help her be reborn as a human, Moggalana fed ‘hungry ghosts’ to gain merits and offered food to 500 monks on the 15th day.

“Ullambana is a day to give offerings to monks and transfer merits to the departed ones,” says Buddhist Missionary Society president Ang Joo Hong.

But Ang says the Hungry Ghost and Ullambana are two different festivals.

Most people think they are the same because they fall on the same day in the lunar calendar.

“Actually, the Hungry Ghost festival was already celebrated by folks in ancient China before the advent of Buddhism and Ullambana in the country,” he says.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

A matter of respect

ALTHOUGH the festival is still observed with due reverence by most Chinese, a growing number of people don’t.

Robert Lua Khang Wei, 25, says he doesn’t believe in the festival.

“Maybe it’s the scientific exposure I’ve had but I find it illogical to appease ghosts and there is no proof behind the taboos,” says the Buddhist who holds a degree in chemistry.

He thinks tragedies that happen during the month are not related to ghosts because “they happen anytime, especially when no safety precaution is taken”.

Soh Li Hong, 22, doesn’t even know when the festival begins or ends.

“I also don’t know what the taboos are,” she says.

She says her mother is a Christian who practises the dos and don’ts of the festival.

“But she doesn’t force us to do the same. She only tells us to come home earlier to avoid untoward incidents and not shift house,” she says.

And Soh and her siblings oblige anyway, “as a show of respect”.

The article above was found on Google and was published originally on The New Straits Times Online