Ghost Festival

In the Chinese lunar calendar, the 15th day of the seventh month is the traditional Zhongyuan festival (Ghost festival). There is a folk saying that "At the half of the seventh month, the gate of ghosts will be opened", just like the plot of the movie "Coco". But is this really the case? And why is the Zhongyuan festival commonly considered to be a ghost festival? How did the ancient people spend this festival? movie Coco   Zhongyuan Festival = Ghost Festival? Zhongyuan festival has a thousand-year history, and is also known as "Qi Yue Ban (七月半)" and "Yulanpen Festival (盂兰盆节)", each name representing a different ideological origin of the Zhongyuan festival. Simply put, it originated as a folk custom of ancestor worship, and later incorporated the ideas of Confucianism, Buddhism, and Taoism. When it comes to traditional folklore ancestor worship, we have to mention the "Qiu Chang (秋尝)": an ancient sacrificial ritual held in July. Autumn is the harvest season, and ancient people offer the ripe grains to their ancestors to pray for a good harvest in the coming year. In the beginning, there was no fixed date for "Qiu Chang". As the 15th day of the 7th lunar…

History of Winter Clothing Festival Winter Clothing Festival (寒衣节,  hányī jié), also known as "十月朝, shí yuè cháo," "祭祖节, jì zǔ jié," "冥阴节, míng yīn jié," "鬼头日, guǐ tóu rì," and "秋祭, qiū jì" is a holiday that occurred on October 1st on the lunar calendar. It emerged in the Zhou Dynasty but does not have any physical written records of it until the Song Dynasty.  Winter Clothing Festival goes along with "Qīngmíng Festival (清明节)" and "Zhōng yuán Festival (中元节)" and get categorized as the top three "Ghost Festivals" in China. The reason is because the three festivals all focused on the living paying their respects and providing their sacrifice offerings to their ancestors on that day. While Winter Clothing Festival Is grouped under the top three Ghost Festival, it is the festival among the others that have the least presence. The other two have a strong focus on people going grave sweeping or doing something unique for this festival, but Winter Clothing Festival it’s more about people expressing the idea of; "The weather is cooling. Winter is approaching soon. We need to start sewing up warm and thick outfits for winter." If you look at China’s cultural belief development,…