GHOSTS dun't haunt... they suffer

We provide them with sumptuous feasts, burn large amounts of joss paper for their benefit, entertain them with shows and stay out of their way in the hope that they steer clear of ours too.

but to have fear as the driver for the celebration is perhaps the most misunderstood part of Hungry Ghost Festival.

We give the hungry ghosts food and offer them a lot of things not because we are afraid of them, but because we sympathise with them.

Sympathy? Sounds like a foreign concept at a time when people avoid throwing parties for fear of attracting unearthly "gatecrashers" and the young are advised to stay home at night to minimise contact with denizens of the netherworld

For the longest time the festival, which is widely celebrated by Chinese the world over, has been associated with ghosts being released from the lower realms to roam the Earth throughout the seventh month

Sympathy would come easily if people understood "the sufferings of a hungry ghost"

A hungry ghost, an insatiably hungry creature who leads a miserable existence, is what a greedy and selfish person becomes when he dies

Contrary to popular belief, hungry ghosts do not haunt. They suffer

In effigy form, the spirit is depicted with a bloated belly, a narrow neck and a hanging tongue.

The hungry ghost is full, its stomach is filled. And yet, its tongue is hanging out, showing how much it wants to eat

But it can't. It doesn't have a throat, its neck is narrow and everything that it tries to eat turns into fire.

This is greed - to be full and unable to eat and yet have the desire for food

This is why a hungry ghost suffers

But if they cannot eat, why do the chinese offer food to them?

This is the reason material offerings to these spirits should be accompanied by the chanting of mantras which help to enlighten and free them of their suffering.

The festival is not all about fearing and pleasing the spirits, but to help them.

According to Buddhist beliefs, all sentient beings revolve within the 6 realms of existence - the celestial asura, human, hungry ghost, animal and hell realms - until they are liberated from samsara, the endless cycle of death and rebirth

One needs to escape from the sufferings of the 6 realms. We cannot escape from samsara until we are devoid of attachments

back in the old days of the agrarian society, valus like filial piety were widely observed as a means to rid oneself of attachment to materialism

people who had filial piety cared not only for their parents, but everone, too

They treated everyone the way they treat their parents which included the sharing of possesions

During autumn, not everyone was blessed with a bountiful harvest, so this charitable act of giving surplus clothes and food to others means that one is not controlled by attachment

The Hungry Ghost Festival emphasises sympathy, mercy and charity

Transcribing the Heart Sutra helps to release the souls of the departed from suffering

When you do this with a clear mind, you transfer merits and virtues to them and, at the same time, these good deeds are reflected back to you

One can also transfer these merits to loved ones who are still alive

The ceremony is far removed from the hurried manner in which many families burn piles of jossp paper offerings by the roadside

This ceremony is to transfer merits. There's nothing scary about it at all. It's something very pure and beautiful that you want to do for your loved ones, alive or dead

It is also a gathering of sorts for families, where the young observe filial piety in action

So how did those creepy stories about vengeful ghosts and haunting spirits develop?

Through forklore

The Hungry Ghost Festival takes place during the transition period from summer to autuumn, a time when diseases tend to spread more easily because of the rapid and dramatic weather changes

Back ih those times, people did not know about things like bacteria or virus. The only way to explain the unusally high death rate was that the month was haunted

BY NST