林 lín 老 lăo 师 shī

Chinese Halloween中 zhōng 元 yuán 节 jié

WARNING: Viewer discretion advised. Content contains scary images that may not be suitable for scardy-cats. Please follow teachers instructions to close eyes when scary images appear. If you wet your pants in terror, please feel free to leave the room and change.

Ghost Month runs for the entire 7th month of the lunar calendar.

On the 1st day of the 7th month, the gates of hell open!鬼 guǐ 门 mén 开 kāi

Ghost Month 鬼 guǐ 月 yuè

After the gates open, all the ghosts come out for a one month “vacation”. During this time, the living try to be nice to the ghosts by feeding them.

This is called普 pŭ 渡 dù .

Ghost Month 鬼 guǐ 月 yuè

On the 15th day, many people prepare feasts for all the ghosts that have not been “taken care” of.

Descendants “take care” of their deceased ancestors by offering them food, paper money, burning incense etc.

中 zhōng 元 yuán 节 jié

the Chinese believe that deceased people also need food, clothing, and money, so they worship the ghosts with these things.

What to prepare

Warning: scary image coming.

Paper money 纸 zhǐ 钱 qián is the currency used in the afterlife. The deceased receive the money after it is burned.

Everyone needs money

Items needed in the next life are printed on the paper money.

The more you burn, the richer the ghosts become.

Even though “鬼guǐ ” is the term for “ghost”, people prefer not to say it because if you say鬼guǐ , ghosts will think you are looking for them, and come to you.

Therefore, “好hăo 兄 xiōng 弟dì ” (Good buddy), or “阿 ā 飘piāo ” (Floaty) is used to talk about ghosts.

Beware of the ghosts

Warning: scary image coming.You are about to eye-witness a ghost caught on camera.

We don’t have handsome vampires (吸 xī 血 xiě 鬼 guǐ “suck blood ghost”) like Edward. We have blood sucking zombies (僵 jiāng 尸 shī “stiff corpse”) that cannot walk, only jump due to their stiff knees.

Our ghosts are different from yours

Warning: scary image coming.You are about to eye-witness two real zombies.Chinese version of a Ghost Buster

Because the “good buddies” are wandering around, the living need to be cautious about doing certain things:

During the day time people….do not get married do not move to a new housedon’t buy new cars or housestay away from water (beach, river, pool)

because the ghosts that drown are looking to find a living person to “replace” them.

Ghost Month Taboos 禁忌

After dark people……Stay at home, and go to bed early.Don’t call other people by their name, “they”

will remember it.Don’t turn their head when people call them.

Who knows what is calling?Don’t tap on others’ shoulder or head to get

their attention. (Everyone has an invisible light around them, touching their head or shoulder puts out the light and allows the ghosts to come and harass)

Ghost Month Taboos 禁忌

Two things should be away from your bed:

Ghost Month Taboos 禁忌

风 fēng 铃 líng they summon ghosts

鞋 xié 子 zi Ghosts think shoes point in the direction of the living, so shoes should point away from your bed

Never stick the chopsticks in your rice!!!

Taboo 禁忌

At the end of Ghost Month, all the ghosts are supposed to go back to the dark side.

If not, 牛 niú 头 tóu 马mă 面miàn (Mr. Cow Head & Mr. Horse Face) will go and get them, so we can have another peaceful year……

关 guān鬼 guǐ 门mén