Ghost Festival (中元节）

This Friday will mark the end of 7th month lunar calendar. 2 days ago a grand ceremony - Por Tor, was held in the neighbourhood where I am residing to conduct a proper sendoff for the spirits. The annual event was held over 3 days where several rituals were carried out to transmute and absolve the sufferings of the deceased. Prayers were chanted and food is offered to those lost souls and spirits wandering between the living and lower realms. During this period, the deceased ancestors "return" to visit the living of their descendants and seek for entertainment.

Activities during the 3 days include preparing ritualistic food offerings, burning incense, and burning joss paper, a papier-mache form of material items such as clothings, gold and other fine goods for the visiting spirtis. Elaborate meals would be served with empty seats for the deceased and spirits treating them as if they are still living. A makeshift open air cinema is setup, playing movies for the spirits as entertainment. Live performances were put on at night and at high volumes as the sound would attract and please the spirits. The first row of seats are always empty as this is where the "guests" would sit.

Families in the neighbourhood offered a great variety of food and beverages to the unknown homeless souls so that they would not intrude on their lives and bring misfortune and bad luck. Incense stands for prosperity in Chinese culture, so families believe that there is more prosperity in burning more incense. Businessmen and shop owners in the neighbourhood gathered to build altars for the deceased and priests/monks alike perform rituals for the benefit of souls. Monks often throw rice or other small food into the air in all directions to distribute them to the homeless spirits. The altars are setup in the street with fresh fruits and also sacrifices displayed on it. The grand finale of the event is when few monks chanted an hour long prayers to make sure all the hungry ghosts and wandering souls find their way back to the underworld.

There is a belief that there are souls who remain in the living realm to seek revenge to those who have wronged them in life. What do you think?