Ghost Festival

What the month means

The seventh lunar month is widely known as Ghost Month. People hold that the living world, the heavens and the underworld lie open to one another, and spirits walk abroad seeking food, money and amusement. Most pitied are the hungry ghosts, beings who were once living people and died with overpowering wants. The most restless are the dead with no descendants to feed them, or whose families stopped making offerings. The festival differs from the spring tomb-sweeping day of Qingming and the autumn Double Ninth: on those days the living honour their older forebears, while now the dead come to visit, and respect is paid to every departed soul, whether elder, younger generation or stranger.

Where it came from

The festival has two strands. Taoists link the name Zhongyuan to a doctrine of Three Yuan, honouring three great Emperor-Officials, and the observance flourished under Tang rulers who favoured Taoism. Buddhists point to the Yulanpen Sutra from ancient India. It tells of the monk Maudgalyayana, who gains spiritual sight and finds his mother reborn as a preta, a starving spirit. Food he offers her turns to burning coal. The Buddha teaches that gifts to the order of monks at Pravarana, the close of the rains retreat, carry merit to parents of this life and of seven past lives. Theravada lands keep older forms drawn from the Petavatthu, a Pali text of about the third century BC, which tells a like tale of Sāriputta and his family.

How it is kept

At dusk incense burns by front doors, since fragrance stands for prosperity and more sticks mean more of it. Tables and altars carry meals, often vegetarian, sometimes with an empty seat set for a departed relative, served as though the person were still at the table. Paper offerings go into the fire: underworld bank notes, clothing, gold and other valuables, since what burns is believed to reach the dead. Monks and priests hold rites in the afternoon or after dark, scattering rice in all directions; the Yujia Yankou rite of Chinese Buddhism, for instance, feeds every being caught in the round of rebirth. Lotus lanterns on paper boats light the way for lost souls on the water, and are floated once more two weeks on to send every spirit home.

Shows for the spirits

Entertainment is part of the offering. In Singapore and Malaysia, temples and district organisations once hired opera troupes to play to spirits and neighbours alike; as street opera faded, concert-style stages took over. These shows, called Getai or song stages, run at night with singers, dancers, puppets and comedians on temporary platforms set up in housing estates. The loudness is deliberate, since sound is thought to please the unseen audience. The front row of red chairs stays vacant all evening, because the guests of honour are the ghosts themselves, and sitting there is held to bring sickness or bad luck.

Across Southeast Asia

Each country keeps the season in its own way. In Indonesia it is called Chit Gwee Pua or, in Indonesian, a name meaning scrambling prayer: worshippers gather at temples with offerings for a spirit who died badly, then hand the food to the poor, and the scramble for it gave the custom its name. Java is its main home there, with concerts and grave visits in North Sumatra and Riau, where paper houses, horses and cars go into the fire for the dead. Filipino observers treat the whole month as an unlucky stretch, putting off weddings, new ventures, contracts and big purchases while wandering souls are about. In Cambodia the Khmer keep Pchum Ben, a Theravada form with old Pali roots.

How Ghost Festival is kept

As the month opens, families begin leaving food, drink and incense for visiting spirits. On the night itself, altars stand outside homes and temples, monks and Taoist priests chant and perform rites to relieve the dead, and rice is tossed for unseen guests. Communities stage loud evening shows with a vacant front row for spirit spectators. Lotus lanterns drift on rivers, showing lost souls the way. About a fortnight later, lanterns are set out once more so any spirits still wandering return to the underworld; when the lights go out, the ghosts are understood to be home.

When and where

The date comes from the Chinese lunisolar calendar, which tracks both sun and moon: it lands on the night of the full moon in the seventh lunar month, though parts of southern China keep it a night earlier. In most years that is August, sometimes early September. The whole month counts as Ghost Month, closed about two weeks later when lanterns are floated a second time.

The festival took shape in China, though its Buddhist strand reaches back to India. It travels with Chinese communities abroad: Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia and the Philippines all keep it, each with local names and customs. Theravada countries hold older sister festivals: Pchum Ben in Cambodia, Sat Thai in Thailand, Boun Khao Padap Din in Laos and Mataka dānēs in Sri Lanka. Vietnam keeps Vu Lan and Japan Obon.

What Ghost Festival means

To those who keep it, the night expresses filial duty that outlives death: caring for parents and grandparents after they have gone. Feeding the dead, giving them money and comfort, transfers merit and eases their pain. Sharing food with stranger ghosts keeps homeless souls content so they do not bring misfortune. The lanterns stand for showing spirits the way, first into the world of the living, then home. Burning incense speaks of prosperity, and the whole month binds the living, the ancestors and the unseen into one community of mutual care.

On the table

• rice
• fresh fruit
• vegetarian dishes

Ghost Festival dates: 2026, 2027, 2028

Questions people ask about Ghost Festival

See also

DiwaliA five-day festival of lights celebrated across India and its diaspora to mark the victory of light over darkness.MawlidAn annual festival marking the birth of the Prophet Muhammad, marked by poetry, processions and feasts.Mid-Autumn FestivalAn annual harvest festival celebrating family reunions, full moons and mooncakesGanesh ChaturthiA Hindu festival celebrating the arrival of Ganesha, marked by clay idols, sweets, and public processions.

Good reading and sources

• Encyclopaedia BritannicaArticle

• Ghost Festival on WikipediaEncyclopedia
• More photos on Wikimedia CommonsPhotos and video
• Wikidata recordOpen data

It may contain mistakes. Traditions differ from one family, village and community to the next, and the people who keep them know them best. If something is wrong, tell us. Last refreshed 2026-10-04.