The origin and precautions of the Ghost Festival
Hungry Ghost Festival is the name of Taoism. Folklore calls it July 15th and July 14th (otherwise it is July 15th) as ancestor worship festival. Buddhism calls it Obon Festival. Let’s take a look at the origins and precautions of the Hungry Ghost Festival that I have compiled for you. You are welcome to read them, for reference only.
The origin of the Hungry Ghost Festival
According to legend, every year from July 1st, the King of Hell orders the gates of hell to be opened, so that those who have been suffering all year round can be imprisoned. The innocent souls and ghosts in hell come out of hell, wander around for a short period of time, and enjoy blood food in the world, so people call July the ghost month. People regard this month as an unlucky month, and they neither marry nor move.
Every year on the 14th/15th day of the seventh lunar month is the Bon Festival, also known as the Ghost Festival, July Half or Ghost Festival. In the past, in addition to worshiping their ancestors, people also prepared some dishes, Bring wine, rice, gold, silver, clothes, paper, etc. to worship ghosts and gods at the intersection.
July 14th/15th of the lunar calendar is the biggest festival in the underworld - the Ghost Festival, also known as the Ghost Festival or the Ghost Festival Lanpen Festival is one of the three important underworld festivals in my country. There is a folk legend that the Lantern Festival is celebrated in the human world and the Ghost Festival is celebrated in the underworld. It is said that the King of Hell will also dress up in costumes and celebrate the festival with the ghosts on that day, and let us living people bless them together, wishing that people in the other world will realize their wishes and enjoy the happiness that they have not had time to enjoy in this world. Therefore, many local communities in our country will hold activities such as offering sacrifices, visiting Buddha, cleaning tombs, reviewing flowers, appreciating flowers, and fishing to celebrate.
The ghost festival originated from the story of Mulian rescuing his mother: "There is a monk named Mulian who has great magical power. His mother fell into the realm of hungry ghosts, and food turned into flames when she entered it. The hunger and suffering were too great. Mulian could not To save his mother from misfortune, he asked the Buddha for advice and taught him how to make the Ullambana Sutra on the 15th day of the seventh month to save his mother." It is said that Mulian met him after experiencing many hardships in the underworld at that time. His dead mother, Mrs. Liu, discovered that she was being tortured by a group of hungry ghosts. Mulian tried to feed her with vegetables and rice in a bowl, but the food and rice were taken away by the hungry ghosts. Mulian had no choice but to seek help from Buddha. Buddha was moved by Mulian's filial piety and granted him the Ullambana Sutra. According to the instructions, Maud Lian used an Ollomb basin filled with precious fruits and vegetables to worship his mother on the 15th day of the seventh lunar month. The starving mother finally got food. In order to commemorate Mulian's filial piety, Buddhists hold a grand "Ollambana Festival" every year, which is what we now call the "Ghost Festival".
The book says that on this day in ancient times, people would set up the Master's Seat and Shigu Terrace in front of Jiekou Village in advance. In front of the mage's seat is the Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva who has saved the ghosts of "hell", and below is a plate of peaches and rice. There are three spiritual tablets and soul-calling flags standing on Shigu Terrace. After noon, every household placed whole pigs, whole sheep, chickens, ducks, geese and all kinds of cakes, fruits, melons, etc. on Shigutai. The person in charge put a handful of triangular paper flags in blue, red, green and other colors on each sacrifice, and wrote words such as "Bon Lan Festival" and "Ganlu Gate Opens". The ceremony began with a burst of solemn temple music. Immediately afterwards, the mage rang the bell and led the monks in the audience to recite various mantras and mantras. Then serve, scatter a plate of noodles with peaches and rice in all directions, repeat three times. This ceremony is called "flaming mouth". Wang Kaitai, a scholar in the Qing Dynasty, once wrote a poem: "The Taoist temple purifies the ghosts, and the original ancient meaning of Yulan still exists. But it is strange that the red paper is posted on the door, and the meat mountain and the sea of wine celebrate the Chinese New Year." It describes the area along the southeastern coast of my country. Ghost Festival customs.
It can be seen that the "Ghost Festival" originated from the traditional virtue of filial piety. Today, people in northern my country still burn paper money on this day to pay homage to their ancestors who have passed away long ago and to express their longing for their loved ones. Although the sacrificial method is simple, it basically preserves the simple meaning of the Ghost Festival. Because the call of blood, the extension of emotions, and the reminder of one's future all give the Ghost Festival rich humanistic connotations. Even if the era has changed and the gifts burned have changed, the living people will never be able to convey the endless sorrow and deep remembrance of their departed relatives. But "people of different ages have different feelings about this special festival, because the future festival is coming to us mercilessly, from hazy to clear, from longing to fear, from fear to calmness, missing the past people At that time, I was actually thinking about my experience, content, method and pursuit of life today.”
July 14th/15th is the day when the door of hell opens. Whether it is burning paper money to send blessings, holding daisies to express condolences, or offering sacrifices to ancestors on the Internet, or setting off river lanterns, people alive today miss the people in the past together, and send blessings to their ancestors together. Spiritual spontaneity is an extension of emotion and the most basic belief. And at the same time, "People who are alive should cherish every day they are alive, and don't be ashamed of society and friends, and don't be ashamed of relatives who have left forever. Because one day we will meet them, and when the time comes, you can be proud It is said that if you are a hero in the world, you must also be a hero in the underworld!"
Notes on the Ghost Festival
1. Pay attention to your words and deeds, and do not slander ghosts and gods.
Although many people do not believe in the existence of ghosts and gods, they did believe in ghosts and gods in ancient times. Before and after the Hungry Ghost Festival, you should not casually say strange things. It is so easy. Causing panic in others will seriously affect the atmosphere.
2. Don’t eat the sacrifices secretly, and don’t pick up ghost money randomly.
In my family’s custom, every July and a half, which is the Hungry Ghost Festival, we will divide the ghost money, such as ghost paper, ingots, etc., in the first few days, and then put them into paper bags , and write the names of the deceased ancestors on the paper bags, and then take them to their respective graves to burn. The money is for the ancestors and relatives. We cannot pick up the money randomly in front of the graves, otherwise the ancestors will be resentful and angry. Find you.
3. Avoid going out at night, and don’t look back when walking.
The atmosphere on the Ghost Festival is quite weird. It feels like the souls of the dead are all on the road at night. It is best not to walk at night on this day. If there is any disturbance, you will scare yourself, especially People whose birthdays are not very good should pay more attention. If you really need to go out at night, it is best to bring a few people with you to give yourself a sense of security. After all, there is strength in numbers.
4. Avoid looking in the mirror in the middle of the night or staying up late.
The Yin energy in the world is relatively strong around the Ghost Festival. When you look in the mirror, a ghost suddenly appears in the mirror like in a horror movie, and then stretches out its hand to pinch you. What to do if you die? This is very scary. In the middle of the night, when the human body is relatively weak and the vitality is relatively weak, what should we do if a ghost takes over? We are also told in health care to try to rest as early as possible.
The legend of the Ghost Festival
1. Mulian saved his mother
In the Mulianbian text, Mulian’s common name is Luo Bu, and his widowed mother, Mrs. Qingti, He is stingy by nature and likes killing. But Luo Bu is very kind, does good deeds and gives alms, and respects the Three Treasures. One day, when he was going out to do business, he told his mother to divide the family's money into three parts, one part to take away for himself, one part to support his mother, and one part to stay at home to give to the poor. Unexpectedly, after Luo Bu left home, Mrs. Qingti slaughtered chickens and geese every day. Whenever a monk came to his door, he ordered his servants to beat him out with sticks, and even sent dogs to chase and bite the beggar.
Due to her evil deeds, she was punished to fall into Avici Hell after her death and suffered day and night. After his mother passed away, Luo Bu was very sad. He thought that the only way to repay his mother's kindness was to become a monk, so he worshiped the Tathagata as his teacher, and his name was Mahamulana. A few years later, he attained the highest level of supernatural power and became an Arhat. Mulian wanted to know where his parents would be reborn after they died, but found that his mother had fallen into the Abi Hell. In order to save his mother, he personally went to hell and saw only the scene of hell:
The people who suffered in it were born and died thousands of times every day. Or the sword tree in the mountains, or the iron plow plowing the tongue, or the copper juice pouring into the mouth, or the hot iron fire pills swallowed. Or hugging a copper pillar, the body will rot and rot. The cow's head lingers late every day, and the jailer finally comes to torture him. The pain of boiling the wok soup is unbearable.
After Mu Lian asked Tathagata Buddha for help, he was able to save his mother from hell, and was reincarnated as a dog in the royal city. After Mu Lian laid the forty-nine-day dojo, his mother was able to ascend to heaven.
2. Burn paper money
It is said that after Cai Lun of the Eastern Han Dynasty invented papermaking, his business prospered and he made a lot of money. His brother Cai Mo and sister-in-law Huiniang were very envious when they saw it. Huiniang asked Cai Moye to learn papermaking from Cai Lun. But Cai Mo's perseverance was not enough, and he hurriedly opened a papermaking shop by himself before he got home. As a result, the paper produced was of low quality and no one cared about it, so the couple was worried about a room full of paper.
Finally, Hui Niang came up with a clever plan, so she put it in Cai Mo’s ears and taught her this way.
That night, the neighbors suddenly heard the sound of crying coming from Cai Mo's house. Everyone rushed over and asked, only to find out that Huiniang died suddenly last night. Early the next morning, Cai Mo cried until he died in front of Huiniang's coffin in front of his neighbors. While crying, he burned paper. While it was burning, I suddenly heard a noise in the coffin. After a while, Huiniang's voice was heard calling from inside: "Open the door, open the door quickly, I'm back." Everyone was stunned, and finally plucked up the courage to open the coffin lid. Hui Niang jumped out and told her neighbors that after her death she went to the underworld, where the King of Hell made her suffer. Because Cai Moshao gave her a lot of paper money, the little devils rushed to do it for her. She gave the money to the King of Hell again, and the King of Hell let her back.
Cai Mo asked deliberately: "I didn't give you money?" Hui Niang pointed to the burning fire and said: "That's money! The underworld uses paper as paper." When Cai Mo heard this, he immediately went to grab two large bundles of paper to burn, saying that he would make his parents in the underworld suffer less. Upon seeing this, the neighbors realized that paper money was of such great use, so they all paid to buy the paper made by Cai Mo. After the news spread, within a few days, all the paper in Cai Mo's house was sold out.
Since the day when Hui Niang returns to Yang is the 15th day of the seventh lunar month, people burn incense and paper to their ancestors on this day. This custom has been passed down to this day.
3. Sheep-Giving Festival
The fifteenth day of the seventh lunar month is also known as the "Sheep-Giving Festival". Xu Shen of the Han Dynasty said in "Shuowen Jiezi": "Sheep is auspicious." It is also called sheep Tongxiang in the Oracle Bone Inscriptions. It can be seen that in ancient times, animals like sheep always represented auspiciousness.
In old Beijing and rural areas of North China, it is a popular custom for grandfathers and uncles to give live sheep to their nephews on July 15th. Legend has it that this custom is related to the legend of Agarwood splitting the mountain to save his mother. After Chenxiang cut a mountain to save his mother, he wanted to hunt down his uncle Erlangshen who abused her. In order to restore the friendship between brother and sister and uncle and nephew, Erlangshen would give Chenxiang a pair of live sheep on July 15th every year. It is said that this was to take Erlangshen and Chenxiang. The homophonic pronunciation of the mother's surname "Yang" is to reunite the two families.
From then on, the custom of giving live sheep to uncles remained among the people, and later gradually evolved into giving a pair of opposite sheep.