(Photo : Chines Zhongyuan Festival, also known as the ghost Festival, people will set the lamps on the river)

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August 21^st is this year's Ghost Festival in China. The Ghost Festival is also known as the Zhong Yuan Festival. The Ghost Festival is on the 15^th night of the 7^th mouth in the lunar calendar. The 15^th day of the 7^th month in the lunar calendar is called Ghost Day and the 7^th month in general is regarded as the Ghost Month.

What's the origin of the Ghost Festival? According to Chinese folklore, the gates of hell are opened at midnight on lunar July 1^st, allowing all the suffering spirits to return and see their living descendants, and enjoy grand feasts. The vacation ends on July 30^th, when all the ghosts must return to the underworld. Therefore, lunar July is called the Ghost Month.

In the Ghost Festival, many wandering ghosts will be PU DU. In Chinese, Pu Du means universal deliverance. After the PU DU activities, those who died of unnatural death will be placated. In order to keep from being bothered by those wandering ghosts, people would burn paper money and spread starch liquid to bribe and placate the fierce spirits.

In a popular Buddhist story, there was another origin of the Ghost Festival. A young man Mu Lian learned his mother was suffering in hell, from the spirit of his deceased father, Mu Lian visited his mother and tried to alleviate her pain with food. But the food turned to fire soon after reaching the mouth of his mother. Then, Mu Lian turned to Buddha for help, and was told that his mother's sins were so great that it would take the combined power of thousands of monks to save her. Acting on Buddha's advice, Mu Lian held a massive ritual on the 15^th day of lunar July, chanting liturgies and providing abundant sacrificial offerings to save his mother's suffering soul from hell. From then on, the tradition of the Ghost Festival is passed on in China.