Ages ago, the festival was called "The Meeting of the Ullumbana Basins." In Sanskrit, Ullumbana means "to hang upside down," an indication of the extreme pain of hell; "basin" indicates a helpful instrument or vessel. Grouped together, the "Ullumbana basins" are intended to save people from worldly sufferings and pain.
A Buddhist classic relates the seminal legend for the Ghost Festival:
When Sakyamuni (one of the incarnations of Buddha) first preached the doctrine of Buddhism in India, he had but two disciples. One of them was Mu Lien. One day, while visiting heaven, Mu Lien met the spirit of his father, who pleaded with Mu Lien to save his mother, suffering in the inferno.
He descended into hell and found his mother among a group of hunger-stricken ghosts. She could neither eat nor drink. He at once procured a bowl of rice for his mother, but it turned to burning coals as she touched it.
Mu Lien, helplessly, asked help from his master. Sakyamuni told him: "Your mother's sin is so heavy that your force alone cannot save her. Invite 100,000 monks and prepare all kinds of offerings to heaven to plead for mercy for your mother." Thereafter, Buddhists have staged these religious ceremonies on behalf of their parents' dead souls.
A connecting legend is based on a story from the famous old novel, Monkey. Emperor Tai-tsung of the Tang Dynasty once dreamed he was visiting hell, and all the condemned ghosts pleaded for his help. When he woke, he ordered monk San Tsang to obtain a set of Buddhist sutras from India. He conducted a 40-day grand religious service for the afflicted souls, praying they could again join humankind after six samsara (ages).
A popular belief in Taiwan is that the gate to hell opens at daybreak on Lunar July 1 every year, allowing condemned souls to visit their old homes and descendants and to partake of food in the real world. The holiday ends on July 30, and the ghosts must return to hell' before the gate closes. That is why the Seventh Moon of the Lunar Calendar is called "ghostly month" in China.
Some souls overstay their time; they cannot return to hell and must wander in this world. To propitiate these homeless ghosts, and fearing that their own ancestors may be drifting lonely and un cared for, the Chinese traditionally hold a grand religious ceremony on July 15 by the Lunar Calendar. All kinds of offerings, including vegetables, fruits, cakes, meats, rice, and wine, are prepared as tokens of welcome and concern.
On the eve of Ghost Festival, a round paper lantern mounted on a bamboo pole is set up in the courtyard of each temple. On the night of the festival, each lantern is lighted to guide solitary ghosts who have lost their way in the world. It is believed that the higher the bamboo pole, the more souls can discern the far-reaching light.
Floating lanterns on the waters is another custom, intended to save people from drowning. It is said that people who do drown are confined to their water-prison year-round, and are not free unless they can find substitute victims. The merciful Buddha could not bear the plight of the innocent substitutes and directed every temple to release bright lanterns on the waters to greet the drowned souls and hell relieve their bitterness.
In general, the scope, in past times, of the lantern-floating ceremony in south China was grander than that in the north, because there are more swamps and river: to the south of the Yangtze River and, consequently, more drowned and more ghosts. Most of the lanterns were made from oil paper with varied decorations. People in the north preferred to fashion their lanterns after the lotus flower, which is believed to be the pedestal of Sakyamuni and, like holy water in the West, antagonistic to evil.
In Taiwan, most lanterns are patterned after houses. Buoyed up by banana leaves, the small paper houses have a candle inside. A couplet on a door frame might say: "Receiving ghosts from the far waterways in shimmering light."
The lantern-floating ceremony generally starts at dusk. Each procession member holds a lighted water-lantern as he files toward the water front. When the priests begin to chant the sutras, the lighted lanterns are released into river or surf, one after another.
Unfortunately, this activity was banned when Taiwan was under the rule of the Japanese during the war years, and over the hiatus the colorful water ceremony has lost much of its following. Only Keelung City, Hsinpu in Hsinchu County, and the villages around Taoyuan in northern Taiwan have really revived the ceremony.
Yi Ming Temple at Hsinpu, Hsinchu County, is one of the few places where the traditional ceremony is carried out intact. But, in order to accommodate increasing numbers of guests, the temple's gala is postponed to the 20th day of the Seventh Moon of the Lunar Calendar.
Ke tsai hsi, Taiwanese opera, is staged three days before the Ghost Festival as a prelude to the pageant. An open theater is set up in front of the temple; the show is signaled at 2 o'clock every afternoon with the mixed voices of gongs and drums. While historic legends extolling such human virtues as filial piety, loyalty, justice, and chastity take place on stage, peddlers compete for the audience's pocket money and children play at card games under the stage. The aged, sitting on benches with fans in their hands, especially enjoy the plays. The side activities never truly disturb the performers because they play also for the many visitors from the spirit world whom, they feel, are attending.
Visitors do not fail to mark a large paper mache statue of Lord Tashih housed in the temple's shrine. Honored as leader of the spirits, Lord Tashih puts on colorful clothes, and displays a fearsome red tongue hanging down to his chest and a small figure of the Goddess of Mercy on his head. It is said that before Lord Tashih was tamed by the Goddess of Mercy, he was a cannibal. Now, along with the ghosts, he is allowed to enjoy secular offerings this month. The Lord is flanked by two small houses. The one on his left is for scholars; that on his right is for the general public. In addition, there are rooms for male and female souls. Like the gods of Greek mythology, souls in China are classified by rank and sex.
The 15 villages near Yi Ming Temple take turns hosting the Ghost Festival. Each village in turn provides a "Master Censor," who is responsible for hosting the ceremony, arranging public plays, and seeing to the provision of sacrificial offerings.
A highlight of the festivities is selection of a champion hog for the ceremony's food offering. It is believed that anyone who can raise a hog weighing more than 1,000 Ibs. must have virtuous ancestors. Accordingly, raising the champion is a great glory.
The rules for the competition are simple: only the weight of the hogs is used in judging a winner. After evaluation, those hogs ranked before the tenth heaviest are dressed up in gorgeous decorations the morning of the festival and paraded on floats. An average of over 1,000 such hogs are butchered each year.
It takes two years to raise a hog for the competition. Special diets are provided to increase weight rapidly. Besides such regular food as soy bean cake and sweet potato leaves, the hogs pick up extra nutriments from carrot juice, eggs, apples, yogurt, and bread. For two meals a day, the cost may be as much as US$4 per hog per day.
As the hogs grow heavier, they need more intensive care. In the summer's blazing heat, fans are turned their way to keep them cool. They are forced to take ten baths a day to refresh them selves. At night, special incense is burned to drive away mosquitoes.
Early on the day of the festival, visitors, acrobats, peddlers, and ke-tsai-hsi performers begin to pour in. Then, around 10 o'clock in the morning, trucks carrying the huge hogs-mounted on wooden racks-line up to enter the temple square. A pineapple in the mouth of each hog invokes Buddha's help for prosperity. To keep the meat itself fresh, the hogs are constantly basted in wine.
The champion-hog raisers erect floral arches to identify their winners. Though only a modest sum of US$80 and a medal are presented to each winner, the farmers feel the glory of winning is worth the labor.
To complete the annual pageant, banquets are given by each household of the "Master Censor" village. Hospitable hosts may even share their feasts with visitors.
As a result of the government's urgings that citizens here lead more frugal lives, the rapid development of industry and trade, and the acceleration of the tempo of life, the material scope of the ceremony has grown smaller with each passing year.
One of the festival organizers in Hsinpu commented: "To honor the spirits and our ancestors is traditional with the Chinese people, a feast for both the spirits ... and the soul. This festival and pageant provide a respite for people living in our busy, modern society. So I think, at least in our country, this ceremony will go on and on." - By Huang Yu-mei