中元節

The Hungry Ghost Festival


Every year, hundreds of millions of people participate in a month-long festival to celebrate, mourn, and appease the dead.

Throughout China and other East Asian countries, the seventh month of the year is called Ghost Month and the fifteenth day of that month is called Ghost Day. It is a time when the restless shades of the dead roam and the living take care to not offend them.

Tour the festival

Backdrop: Gaki Zōshi, 12th c.

When is the next festival

Learn more
  • The gate opens — the first night
  • Ghost Day — the fifteenth night
  • The gate closes — the last night

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