Why does it have to be July and a half? What's the point?

Hungry Ghost Festival, commonly known as Ghost Festival, Shigu Festival, and Half-July Festival, is called the Bon Festival in Buddhism. Together with New Year's Eve, Qingming Festival and Double Ninth Festival, it is a traditional ancestor worship festival in China. It is also a traditional cultural festival popular in countries in the Chinese character cultural circle. During the Hungry Ghost Festival, there is the custom of setting off river lanterns and burning paper ingots.

The 15th day of the first lunar month in the lunar calendar is called the Shangyuan Festival by the Han people to celebrate the Lantern Festival, which has existed since ancient times; the 15th day of the seventh lunar month is called the Zhongyuan Festival by the Han people to worship ancestors; and the 15th day of the 10th month is called the Xiangyuan Festival by the Han people On the Yuan Festival, people eat cold food to commemorate sages. The Hungry Ghost Festival falls on the 15th day of the seventh lunar month, and in some areas it falls on the 14th day of the seventh lunar month.

The Hungry Ghost Festival was originally Xiaoqiu, when some crops were ripe. It was customary for the people to worship their ancestors and use new rice and other sacrifices to report the autumn harvest to their ancestors. Therefore, during the Hungry Ghost Festival, every family worships their ancestors and performs rituals when doing so. On the 15th day of the seventh lunar month, people visit the tombs and pay homage to their ancestors. Overseas Chinese will send money during the four festivals of Qingming, Zhongyuan, Winter Solstice and New Year. Otherwise, they will be considered as disrespectful to their ancestors, unfilial to their elders, and irresponsible to their wives.

It is said that all the ghosts will be released from the underworld on the Ghost Festival, and people generally carry out ghost worship activities. Whenever a family has a new funeral, they usually visit a new grave, and sacrifices to lonely ghosts are usually held locally. This has become one of the largest sacrificial festivals among Chinese people.

The Zhongyuan ritual is to forgive the sins of the deceased souls, but it can never completely relieve the sins, it can only alleviate them a little. I hope they can rest in peace soon. During the rituals, they not only rescued the souls of the dead, but also provided relief to the homeless souls and those who sacrificed their lives for the country and died on the battlefield. The sesame oil money obtained during rituals is mainly used to purchase sacrifices.

According to Buddhist allusions, there is the following allusion about the origin of the "Ollan Festival": It is said that when the Buddha Sakyamuni was alive, he accepted ten disciples, one of whom was a monk named Maud Lian. The person's parents had died before he attained enlightenment. Since Maud Lian missed his deceased mother very much, he used his clairvoyance to see how his mother was living in the underworld. It turned out that they had become hungry ghosts, with neither food nor drink, and their condition was miserable. pity. After seeing this, Mulian felt very heartbroken, so he used his magic power to bring some food to his mother. Unfortunately, as soon as the food was brought to his mouth, it immediately turned into flames. After seeing this situation, Mulian was very heartbroken, so he gave this food to his mother. The situation told Sakyamuni that the Buddha taught him that his mother had sown a lot of sins when she was alive, so she fell into the realm of hungry ghosts after death, and would never recover. This evil obstacle cannot be resolved by him alone, and everyone must gather together. Therefore, Mulian joined a group of eminent monks to hold a large-scale worship ceremony to transcend the souls of the dead. Later, this legend has been passed down to later generations and gradually formed a folk custom. Every year in the middle of the seventh month of the lunar calendar, people will kill chickens and ducks, burn incense and clothes, and worship the hungry ghosts who came out of the underworld to resolve their grievances and prevent them from leaving behind. Harmful to the world, over time, the custom of Ghost Festival has been formed.

From the legends about the Hungry Ghost Festival, we can deeply realize that the sacrifices on the Hungry Ghost Festival have dual meanings. One is to carry forward the filial piety of remembering the ancestors, and the other is to carry forward the spirit of recommending oneself to others and being charitable. A righteous act. This is all from a compassionate perspective, very humane. Therefore, while celebrating Zhongyuan, we should break away from the ghost perspective and encourage mutual love.