What is Hungry Ghost All About?

Did you grow up alongside the place where the Hungry Ghost Festival took place? Did you hear the loud prayers and the loud chants? Did you see so much smoke that your first assumption would be to scream “fire”? These happenings are all merely part of the annual Hungry Ghost Festival.

The Hungry Ghost Festival is the time where the Chinese believe that every year, from August 22 to September 19, the Gates of Hell would open and release all the souls and spirits to earth. During this time, families of the deceased would lay out offerings, do prayers and burn hell notes as money for the deceased.

Coming from a traditional Chinese family on my first mother’s side that resides in Malaysia, every year I would make a trip back for the Hungry Ghost Festival. And every time it’s the same routine: a large feast laid out on the table with my grandma’s best family recipes brought to reality, the smoke from the incense sticks tearing my eyes and the unmistakable red stain on my palms after holding the incense stick during prayers.

Despite the discomfort, this is what makes family to me. We would all come together, pray together and finally feast and drink together. Sometimes we would go out of home to our loved ones final resting place and lay out the offerings and pray there instead too.

One of my most memorable moments for me during the Hungry Ghost Festival is when I was at a temple where my youngest uncle's final resting place was. Every year, my uncle would stand and watch without fail the items that we burned and waited until everything was completely burnt. When I asked him why he would watch them, he simply told me, “Oh, we should keep an eye on it so that nobody else “takes” it.”