Hungry Ghost Festival

The Hungry Ghost Festival (饿鬼节 È Guĭ Jié)of Chinese Taoism is also the Ullambana Festival (盂兰节yú lán jié)of Buddhism, commonly called "Ghost Festival"(鬼节 guĭ jié) or “Mid-July Festival”(中元节zhōng yuán jié). It falls on the fifteenth of every lunar July. (In 2009, Hungry Ghost Festival will falls on the coming 3rd September.)

Origin：

As the story goes, the Bodhisattva Ksitigarbha's (King of Hell's) mother died and was subjected to all manner of torture. Because he could not bear to see his mother suffering so, on the fifteenth day of the 7th lunar month, he used his personal relationships and connections to free his mother's ghost. Unfortunately, at the same time that he freed his mother's ghost, all the ghosts in the cell also surged out to disturb the human world. This is the origin of the saying, "On the fifteenth day of the 7th lunar month, the ghosts are released," so now we call the day Zhong Yuan Festival, or Ghost Festival.

Activity- Floating river lanterns
On the day of the festival, the living will float river lanterns to remember those who have died. They use boards and colorful paper to make all kinds of lanterns, with candles burning in the middle. Businesses often work together to build a large paper boat, called a Da Fa Boat, to transport all the ghosts to their ideal place. At nightfall, people place the lanterns and boats on the river to see if they float. Whether the boats and lanterns float or not tells them the fate of their deceased relatives. If the lantern or boat swirls in the river, people think the spirit is caught; If it sinks, then the spirit is saved; if it floats far away or to the other shore, the ghost will become an immortal being. While these are certainly good things to wish for, the truth is that most Chinese people float river lanterns just for


带“鬼” 字的常用俗语
Dài guĭ zì de chángyòng súyŭ
Commonly used idioms related to 鬼:

1、神不知鬼不觉(shén bù zhī guĭ bù jué): in great secrecy; be mysterious without the spirits knowing about it

Example:

一旦感染第二代病毒，你的钱就会神不知鬼不觉地被病毒程序转到它所建立的其他帐户上了。
Yídàn gánrăn dì èr dài bìngdú, nĭ de qián jiù huì shénbùzhī-guĭbùjué dì bèi bìngdú chéngxù zhuăn dào tā suŏ jiànlì de qítā zhànghù shàng le.
Once infected, your money will be transferred to an additional account opened by the virus program without anybody knowing it. 

2、有钱能使鬼推磨(yŏu qián néng shĭ guĭ tuī mó): Money makes the mare to go./Money talks

3、鬼鬼祟祟(guĭguĭ-suìsuì): slinky, surreptitious

Example：

他鬼鬼祟祟地向公园门口的那个陌生人靠上去，试图向他兜售偷来的戒指。
Tā guĭguĭ-suìsuì dì xiàng gōngyuán ménkŏu de nàgè mòshēngrén kào shàng qù, shìtú xiàng tā
dōushòu tōu lái de jièzhi.
He sidled up to the stranger in front of the park and tried to sell him the stolen ring.


生词(shēngcí) Vocabulary
感染(gănrăn): v infect
病毒(bìngdú): n viru
程序(chéngxù): n program
账户(zhànghù): n account

To Learn More Chinese Festivals