The Hungry Ghost Festival

Just been for a trot around my new (temporary) neighbourhood. Tomorrow (Monday) is a public holiday, and there's a nice, relaxed vibe around this weekend... and a few celebrations...

Today is Hari Raya Puasa (Eid / end of Ramadan) (hence tomorrow's holiday*) and there were quite a few local Muslim families out in their Sunday best. Added to this, the Hungry Ghost Festival has just started for the Chinese community. I'd never heard of this one before.

This month is when the ghosts of the underworld come up to visit the living. They are not necessarily bad ghosts, just lost souls. And when they arrive they like a bit of nosh and entertainment. So the Chinese community are laying on a spread for them! Along the roadsides here are multiple food offerings, burned items and incense.

Today I saw a really big offering along Serangoon Road - an entire enclosure of 'papier mache' items including paper shoes, cars and lotus flowers, which are burned so that the dead can receive them as gifts. And in front of the enclosure lots of people offering incense, and (real) take-away meals. (I didn't take photos as it seemed a bit disrespectful!)

Also strewn around the neighbourhood have been tons of pretty embossed and printed papers - 'joss papers' - which are burned and offered up to the ghosts as a kind of money.



Joss papers were strewn all down our street last night!

In Singapore and Malaysia especially, community performances will be staged; everyone can go, but the front row of seats is left empty for the ghosts. Later on, I am told, there will be floating lotus lanterns set outside people's houses, to guide the ghosts home when they return to the underworld.

Both Buddhists and Taoists celebrate the Hungry Ghost Festival. O-bon is the equivalent festival in Japan.


* We are lucky to get the gamut of public holidays and religious festivals here - Christmas, Chinese New Year, Eid, Deepavali...!