Ghost month: superstitions and good business
Taipei (AsiaNews)
- "The gates of the underworld open for a month and release the souls of the
dead, so we have to feed them while they are in our world"; with
great care a child of seven or eight explains the practice behind the
traditional month which starts today, while his mother fills the shopping cart at
the supermarket. Shops
and supermarkets each year, before the beginning of the seventh lunar month
(which this year begins today, Friday, Aug. 17), stock up on food items and display
them in bumper value packs for the ease of customers . "In
addition to pleasing the spirits, this makes people happy, and happy customers
make us happy too: it's also a good business there is no doubt," smiled
the manager of a large supermarket in one of the most populated districts in
the city. In
addition to business, he is very diligent in keeping the spirit and celebrating
the month.
In
Chinese tradition, the festival of the spirits is celebrated on the 15th of the
seventh lunar month (zhong yuan jie), which corresponds to August 31 this year,
and is celebrated on the night of 14 (or the night of 15 in northern China). In
Taiwan, the entire seventh lunar month is celebrated as the "month of the
spirits" or "ghosts" (yue gui). The
first day of the seventh lunar month the doors of several temples are opened:
they represent the gates of hell and for this reason the spirits of the dead
can go out for a month and wander among the houses of the living. On
the twelfth day the lamps on the main altar are lit, while during the
thirteenth day there is a procession with lanterns. The
fourteenth day is a moving celebration with the release of lamps on waterways, rivers
or the sea.
Offerings
are made to the deceased to petition them for help but also to placate them. In
Hong Kong and Taiwan, for example, people do not go swimming: it is believed
that the spirits of drowned may seek company... drowning some hapless innocent!
Professor
Ding (丁), who
teaches Chinese history at the state high school, explains that "the
origins of the 'yue gui' are very old, coming both from Chinese folk religions
and Taoism: Buddhism also celebrates the Ullambana (feast day of the
dead) on the fifteenth day of the seventh month. " Traditionally
during this month all traveling, moving, weddings are avoided even if today the
younger generation feels freer to decide otherwise.
In
the evening, while I'm buying the coffee for the next day, another boy is all
intent on choosing copies of colored paper notes that will then be burned as a
gift to the spirits: "This month I will pray even harder: the spirits are
sure to help me ... ". His
Mother replied: "in addition to praying more, you should also study more:
tian zhu zhu zi (heaven helps those who help themsleves)," as the saying
goes in many languages and culture.
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28/11/2008
