The Hungry Ghost Festival
A guided walk through the seventh lunar month, when the dead come looking.
The gates swing wide
On the first night of the seventh lunar month, the boundary between the living and the dead is said to thin. The hungry ghosts are released to wander among us. In 2027 that first night falls on August 2.
Food for the wandering dead
Families set out rice, fruit, and burning incense at the roadside. Paper money and paper goods are burned so the dead may carry them into the next world.
Burn paper for the wandering dead, and they will not trouble the living.
A month of caution
For a full lunar month the gates remain open. In 2027 that is thirty days, August 2 to August 31. People avoid weddings, travel, and moving house. To swim after dark is to invite a drowned spirit to take your place.
Don't touch. Don't eat. Don't go outside.
The offerings belong to the dead. The altar is not yours to disturb, the food is not yours to take, and after dark the streets are not yours to walk. Break a rule, and you are noticed.
The gate closes
On the final night, lanterns are floated downriver to guide the spirits home. The gate shuts for another year, and the living count themselves lucky to have gone unnoticed. In 2027 the gate closes on August 31.
The seventh month in 2027
The festival is a month, not a day. The gate opens on the first day of the seventh lunar month and shuts on the last; the fifteenth is the festival proper — Ghost Day, when the Ullambana offering is made. The dates move with the lunar calendar, so they fall differently every year.
- The gate opens — the first night
- August 2, 2027
- Ghost Day — the fifteenth night
- August 16, 2027
- The gate closes — the last night
- August 31, 2027
Dates are the Chinese reckoning, kept in China Standard Time. A temple near you may hold its own ceremony on a different day — most shift the assembly to the nearest weekend. The festival finder lists the date each one has published.
The title
- Chinese
- 鬼
- Traditional and Simplified alike — the character was never simplified.