A MONTH OF HUNGRY GHOSTS - 鬼节

A MONTH OF HUNGRY GHOSTS - 鬼节

August 7th - Official Premiere!
NEW! - Official Premiere Day - August 7th at Golden Village and Sinema
NEW! - Singapore Theatrical Release - August 7-28 at Golden Village and Sinema

more info, pls refer to: www.hungryghostmovie.com

an interesting movie feature local celebration of the 7th month festival.

Anyway, the 7th month festival, aka festival of the middle season(zhong yuan), should not be addressed as 'hungry ghost'.

1. 'hungry ghost' is a buddhist term, not a taoist's
2. 'ghost' in chinese pov is just a term for the soul for the dead. so why assume all of them are hungry? Human beings are more hungry, hunger for fame, wealth and of course..food. Singapore is a food paradize!

In a nutshell, this festival is originally from China and as a religion, it is not a buddhist festival initially but a Taoist's.

1. 7th month falls on autumn period, a time of harvest, the Chinese practices agriculture and ancestor worship (thanksgiving).

2. the term 'zhong yuan' already explains it is chinese, not indian. zhong yuan refers to a particular deity in taoism. 'shang yuan' (upper season), 'Zhong yuan' (middle season) and 'xia yuan' (lower season) - heaven. earth and water. Each festival for different purpose. zhong yuan is for salvation, repentance of sins.

3. According to historical findings, cultural and religious literature dating this festival can be traced back to the Han dynastty (around 2000 years ago). Buddhist observation of this festival arised only at Tang dynasty, much later.

4. The 'evidence' Buddhist produced, saying this festival is from India etc, cannot be sustained because there are evidences found, that late buddhist literature copied many ideas from early taoist literature.

5. zhong yuan festival is calculated using chinese calendar and for crying out loud, inda has a different system. Highly not possible for it to be able to calculate the festival and fall on the same date.

6. practice of burning papers, dated to also Han dynasty, a way to give offerings, paper was used to replace real artifacts and through burning, its transmit across dimension, from physical world to spiritual. It was never the intention to be comercialized and overly modernized or to burn in great ridiculous quantity. Its the sincerity that counts and to do things in moderate has always been part of the chinese teachings. In another words, it is the 'hunger for wealth', 'capitlistic attitude' and overly westernization that lead to people, misunderstanding the true meaning behind.

7. the world of the dead, in chinese pov, is similar to the mortal world, just that they are spiritual and invisible, what ever we need now, they benefit as well. Because of love and compassion, the chinese burn papers and offerings. Easing their sufferings. Bigger scales could be performing of salvation rituals - to provide salvation, leaving the sea of sufferings to the heavenly paradize.

bottome line, it is love, compassion and filial peity that this festival is trying to bring accross.