What is Ghost Festival?

Ghost Festival, as its name implies, is a festival related to ghosts and a festival to worship ghosts. Ghosts are an extension of human life in the period of ignorance. The concept of prolonging life in eastern and western cultures is slightly different, but people who die as ghosts have always been the mainstream of ghost culture.

There is a Mexican Ghost Festival in the West, but the most famous one is Halloween. This entry will introduce the origin culture of various ghost festivals at home and abroad in detail. In some parts of China, Tomb-Sweeping Day, Mid-Autumn Festival and Cold Clothes Festival are collectively called "Three Ghosts Festival".

Extended data

Grave-sweeping in Tomb-Sweeping Day is related to funeral customs. According to records, in ancient China, "tombs were not graves", that is to say, only graves were dug, and no graves were built, so there was no way to offer sacrifices to sweep them. Later, graves and graves, the custom of offering sacrifices to sweep graves, were supported. During the Qin and Han Dynasties, offering sacrifices to tombs has become an indispensable custom.

The Book of the Later Han Dynasty, Ming Di, quoted the official ceremony of the Han Dynasty as saying: "In ancient times, there was no tomb sacrifice, and Qin Shihuang slept next to the tomb, so Han remained unchanged. All tombs serve meals with gloom, hope, 24, dog days, society, wax and four o'clock. " The emperor is almost a festival. Ordinary officials and ordinary people don't have so much time and money, so Tomb-Sweeping Day gradually freezes in the 24 solar terms. At that time, the government will allow officials to take time off to offer sacrifices to sweep, and the people will also "go to their parents' graves for fields and roads, full of scholars and women, humble servants and beggars." "