The fifteenth day of the seventh lunar month every year is the "Ullamban Festival", also known as the "Zhongyuan Festival". In some places, it is commonly known as the "Ghost Festival" and "Shi Gu", also known as the Day of the Dead and the Mid-day of July.

Today is Zhongyuan Festival. Many people don’t know what it is for Zhongyuan Festival. What is the Zhongyuan Festival? In fact, Zhongyuan Festival is what we commonly call the Ghost Festival, which is on the fifteenth day of the seventh lunar calendar every year. There are many taboos in the Zhongyuan Festival, you must know! What is the middle section of the Yuan section of

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The fifteenth day of the seventh lunar month of the lunar calendar is the "Ullamban Festival", also known as " Zhongyuan Festival". In some places, it is commonly known as "Ghost Festival" and "Shi Gu", also known as the Day of the Dead, and Mid-July .

According to ancient records, "The Taoist scriptures are the fifteenth day of the first lunar month as the Shangyuan, the fifteenth day of the seventh day as the Zhongyuan, and the fifteenth day of the tenth day as the Xiayuan." The Han people called the Shangyuan Festival, which celebrated the Lantern Festival, which has existed in ancient times; the Han people on July 15th day as the Zhongyuan Festival, which worships ancestors; the Han people on October 15th day as the Xiayuan Festival, which is called the Xiayuan Festival, which is used to eat cold food to commemorate the wise people.

Zhongyuan Festival and New Year's Eve, Qingming Festival, Double Ninth Festival (except, Qing, and Jiu), are all four major festivals for worshiping ancestors in traditional Chinese festivals. "Daozang" records, "On the day of the Zhongyuan period, the local officials searched and selected everyone to distinguish good and evil... and recited this sutra day and night, and the great sages of the ten directions chanted the spiritual chapters together. Prisoners and hungry ghosts were liberated at that time." Most people miss their loved ones on this festival and send good wishes for the future.

There are many legends about the Zhongyuan Festival. The most important Taoist Scripture is the practice of "On the middle of July, the earthly officials descend to determine the good and evil in the world. Taoist priests recite scriptures at night, and the hungry prisoners will also be liberated." On the first day of the seventh month of the lunar calendar every year, King Yama opened the gate of ghosts and released a group of lonely ghosts who were not worshipped to the living to enjoy people's offerings. The last day of July, before the Ghost Gate is re-entered, these lonely ghosts have to return to the underworld.

According to traditional proverbs, "If you don't go home for 5 years, you won't have a certain (wife), and if you don't go home for 5 years, you won't have an ancestor." This shows that 6 months of July is an important activity for worshiping ancestors, otherwise you will be laughed at as "no ancestors". Overseas Chinese, you can usually omit the letter of the family to give a letter to the bank, but you must send the bank in the Qingming Festival, the Zhongyuan Festival, the Winter Solstice and the New Year’s Day, otherwise you will be considered as disrespectful to your ancestors, unfilial to your elders, and irresponsible to your wife. This shows the importance of worshiping ancestors and ancestors during the Zhongyuan Festival.

Zhongyuan Festival ancestor worship activities are usually held at noon that day. Every family prepares hearty dishes, wine and rice, and puts 24-flavored mats on the large Baxian table in their respective halls, puts seven pairs of chopsticks, a pot of wine and seven cups, and puts a fruit box dish in the middle. The fruit box is generally a hexagonal prism-shaped hard wood carving flower decoration, and the dish plate is also carved into a rectangle with six grids above. Six vegetarian dishes such as mushrooms, fungus, pine mushrooms, daylily, dried bamboo shoots and red dates are placed in the grid, commonly known as "Liuweizhai". The aforementioned Dongshi Jade Record Boat Tour specially created a complete set of sacrificial utensils made of white tin, wine bottles, jury cups and other sacrificial utensils for worshiping ancestors to show their piety and importance to worshiping ancestors. The banquet was set up, and the host lit three incense sticks, lit a big red candle, knelt on the incense, and invited the ancestors to enjoy the banquet, and hoped to protect the health and safety of the children and grandchildren, and the family was well developed. After a moment of stopping, the bell cup was approved, they burned gold, silver and underworld coins, and the banquet could be withdrawn.

On the same day, the gods and Buddhas worshipped in the hall were offered three animals. The so-called three animals are one main animal with two types of border animals. The main animal is generally cooked five kilograms of big pig's feet with hoofs. The border animals are usually cooked fish, squid, flounder and chicken. For example, the Guanyin Buddha is worshipped in the hall. Because Guanyin's mother does not eat meat, she often worships fresh fruits. Because gods and Buddhas are higher than their ancestors, they can only offer "gold paper". Silver clothes and other clothes are less valuable and cannot reflect the sincerity of good men and women, so they are not included in the rank of dedication.

In addition to worshiping ancestors during the Zhongyuan Festival, the owner also respects the house owner, the foundation owner, the kitchen god, the bed mother, and even the gods of the cowshed, stables, sheep pens and pig pens, and can be respected with the five-flavor banquet bowl and silver wardrobe.

Zhongyuan Festival taboo

The seventh month of the lunar calendar is commonly known as " Ghost Month ". The Ghost Festival is the day with the heaviest yin energy, and there are many. Let's take a look at it and you must not violate it. Ghost Festival taboos: Avoid bringing red ropes, bells, wind chimes, etc. to attract ghosts, and try to avoid going out.If you encounter supernatural events such as ghosts pressing down on the body and ghosts hitting the wall, don’t panic, concentrate all your attention and open your eyes.

1. Hang a wind chime at the head of the bed. Wind chimes are prone to attract ghosts, and sleeping is the most likely time to be "invaded".

2. Night tour. People with light horoscopes must not travel at night, otherwise they will only cause trouble.

3. Burn dark paper for non-specific occasions. The dark paper is burned for ghosts, and the gold paper is burned for gods. The result of burning the dark paper will only attract more ghosts.

4. Eat the offerings secretly. These are foods that belong to ghosts. If they are used without their consent, they will only bring difficult misfortunes for themselves.

5. Dry clothes at night. When a ghost thinks your clothes look good, he will borrow them to wear them and leave his smell on the clothes.

6. Scream your name. Don’t call your name when traveling at night, try to use the code name to avoid being remembered by ghosts.

7. Swimming. You cannot play in dangerous waters. Legend has it that "water ghosts" will find someone to be scapegoats in order to be reincarnated.

8. Watch randomly. ghosts like to hide and scare people. If you are scared by random looking, it is the best time for them to invade you.

9. Banyan tree is placed at the door of the house. Because banyan trees are a plant that gathers shade and are also the favorite of ghosts, unless you want ghosts to come to your house to sit.

10. Stay up late. The most popular time is late at night, and the most powerful time is also late at night. Staying up late can easily cause distraction and invasion.

11. Against the wall. ghosts usually like to stay on the cold wall to rest, which can easily cause ghosts to get on.

12. Pick up money from the roadside. The money is used to buy ox-headed and horse-faced faces. If they violate their things, they will easily be taught a lesson.

13. Look back easily. When walking in the wilderness or sparsely populated places, I feel that "it seems" someone calls you, don't look back easily, it may be a ghost.

14. You cannot hold your arms around anywhere. people have 3 fires on their bodies, one on their heads, one on their left and right shoulders. As long as one of them is destroyed, it will be easily "upper" by ghosts.

15. The toe of the slipper is facing the bed. ghosts will look at the direction of the toe to determine where the stranger is. If the toe toe is facing the head of the bed, the ghosts will go to bed and sleep with you.

16. Chopsticks are inserted in the center of the rice. This is a worship mode, just like incense is inserted into an incense burner. This move will only attract ghosts to share food with you...

Seventeen. One person. A person is prone to arouse the covetousness of ghosts, which is true.

18. Take photos at night. This move is easy to take the ghosts in together and take them home.

9. Psychic game. Don’t play this kind of game casually, let alone during this ghost festival.

20. Put the slippers neatly beside the bed. When traveling outside, slippers are placed neatly by the bed, which will attract the curiosity of ghosts and cause them to make the bed fuss.