![\"\"](\"http:\/\/bukitbrown.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/09\/DSCF7695-1.jpg\" "\\"Hungry")
<\/a><\/p>\nThe Origins<\/span><\/p>\n It\u00a0 is said that although the 7th<\/sup> Month event\u00a0 is an age old tradition and custom from ancient times marked during the 7th lunar month, the term\u00a0 \u201cGui Jie\u201d meaning Ghost Festival did not appear until\u00a0 the Ming Dynasty. I am curious as to when the word \u201cHungry\u201d was added into the Ghost Festival, making it the Hungry Ghost Festival. Indeed this additional adjective\u00a0 does much to fire up the imagination of the more impressionable young and those unfamiliar with the 7th Month event.<\/p>\n Older Chinese,\u00a0 simply\u00a0 call it Chit Gue (7th<\/sup> month in Hokkien), Por Tor (Pudu\u00a0 in Mandarin) or Tiong Guan Huay (Zhong Yuan Jie) which is probably more official as these are the words used in the posters and banners put up during this time.<\/p>\n As with\u00a0 most age old traditions, it’s\u00a0 difficult\u00a0 to separate the practice, beliefs and the myths. We tend to embrace them together\u00a0 and it becomes a\u00a0 colourful, cultural potpourri<\/p>\n How\u00a0 is it\u00a0 “celebrated”? The 7th<\/sup> Month in Singapore means different things to different people.\u00a0 To believers and those who have “the third eye”,\u00a0 it is a month when the entities of the nether world come a calling. \u201cDon\u2019t go out late, Don’t go swimming” would be the warning from Grandma.\u00a0 The grandchildren would dutifully say \u201cyes\u201d and do exactly the opposite! And\u00a0 should anything untoward happen, Grandma would say \u201cI told you so!\u201d and follow up with making reparations to ask the \u201cinvisible\u201d for forgiveness.<\/p>\n For the Hokkiens and Teochews (and probably for other dialect groups as well), on the first night of the 7th<\/sup> month, they would be lining up candles and joss-sticks to \u201cwelcome\u201d the visitors (who might include their ancestors) offering them food and burning joss-papers (money).\u00a0 They do the same\u00a0 on the last day of the 7th<\/sup> month to send them off. In between, on the 15th<\/sup> day, they would also d0 another\u00a0 similar round of offerings. For the Cantonese, I understand that they do it on the 14th<\/sup> night of the 7th<\/sup> month.<\/p>\n Traditional Offerings (photo Victor Yue)<\/p><\/div>\n A\u00a0 few days before the arrival of the 7th<\/sup> month, the organisers of the neighbourhood’s\u00a0 7th<\/sup> Month prayers \u2013 officially called\u00a0 “Celebrating Zhong Yuan Jie” \u2013 will\u00a0 set up make-shift altar tables at a suitable place, usually close to a lift landing or a corner of an\u00a0 HDB\u00a0 block\u00a0\u00a0 Some HDB block or blocks may have more than one group of Zhong Yuan Jie organisers.\u00a0 Most of these organisers would have continued since the days when the residents were from a different\u00a0 neighbourhood.\u00a0 They tended to follow the\u00a0 migration of many of the residents from the old houses (kampong \/pre-war homes) to their new homes in housing estates.<\/p>\n Back in the good ole days<\/span>….<\/p>\n In the old days (circa 1950s), this event\u00a0 lasting between one and three days in any neighbourhood was one that the kids\u00a0 look forward to. Most families would subscribe to one of the Zhong Yuan Jie (or Por Tor in Hokkien) having paid\u00a0 a dollar a month. During the Por Tor, the organisers would have the goodies as offerings to the Por Tor Gong (the Tai Shi Ya or Da Shi Ya) before giving each subscribing household a pail of these goodies.<\/p>\n Da Shi Ye aka The King of Ghosts(photo by Victor Yue)<\/p><\/div>\n Apart from the 7 essentials (\u67f4\u7c73\u6cb9\u9e7d\u91ac\u918b\u8336- charcoal, rice, oil, salt, soya sauce, vinegar and tea \u2013 what\u2019s needed in a typical kitchen of the old days ) there might be half a braised duck or chicken, something that was a luxury\u00a0 in the 50s\u00a0 for\u00a0 most families. There would also be an abundance of fruits \u2013 from Rambutans to Buah Langsat to Buah Duku.<\/p>\n For children, it was like carnival time. Street wayangs\u00a0 – about the only open air entertainment and free to boot of those times,\u00a0 would spring up.\u00a0 They were set up so skilfully within half a day using only mangrove poles tied together by soaked split rattan, and wooden planks for the flooring. I remember taking a stool from my house to \u201cchope\u201d (reserve) a place to watch. The afternoon show was from 2pm to 5 pm and evening\u00a0 from 8pm to midnight. Food was close at hand.\u00a0 Hawkers would encircle the wayang stage\u00a0 and even\u00a0 underneath the raised stage, selling food such as oh-jian (the traditional barnacles in fried sweet potato flour with eggs ), traditional desserts (offerings from red bean soups to sweet potatoes to tau suan and bubur telegu), fried kway teow, shellfish (cockles and siput) and much, much more. And when I was bored with the wayang I would take a turn at the games station and try my luck at\u00a0 tikam-tikam – just\u00a0 folded paper that\u00a0 for 5 centsa pick, you get\u00a0 a a shot at winning a prize of some cheap\u00a0 toy or sweets. I hardly ever won anything.<\/p>\n In the streets of Chinatown<\/span><\/p>\n In the\u00a0 Chinatown of old, each house would, in step with the organising communities for\u00a0 Por Tor,\u00a0 set\u00a0 up their altar tables outside their house to make offerings. As the majority of such houses had multiple tenants, the landlord would lead in organising the prayers. The narrow streets meant\u00a0\u00a0 street wayangs were allocated specific dates for the Por Tor.\u00a0 One would be able to\u00a0 see the offerings from the beginning to the end of the street, with the triangular flags stuck into the food\/fruits fluttering in the wind.<\/p>\n Sometimes, the community prayer\u00a0 ends up with a grand dinner where items are auctioned off and money raised – the collection of which could take up to a year –\u00a0 for the next Por Tor. The funds\u00a0 help to pay for not only the event but also\u00a0 the food baskets.<\/p>\n Enter the getai …<\/span><\/p>\n Getais came on the scene in theearly\u00a0 60’s and overtook the wayangs in popularity (photo by Victor Yue)<\/p><\/div>\n Getai\u00a0 probably started\u00a0 in the 60s\u00a0 and quickly held the crowd captive. But long before their entry, some street wayangs had\u00a0 some of their actors\/actresses singing before the opera started, as a warm up act, but it did not develop further. It took off\u00a0 probably following\u00a0 the hey day of the wildly popular Wang Sar and Yueh Fong.\u00a0 The duo took Singapore by storm and everyone knew the exclamation \u201cWah Lao\u201d. During that time, there were also the Getai entertainment establishments where\u00a0 one could pay for entrance and get a drink to watch. The last one, similar to those in Taiwan, to my memory must the one at the former Wisma Atria, which I would go with my classmates each Chinese New Year eve.<\/p>\n In Chinese temples<\/span><\/p>\n In the Chinese Temples, the offering on the 15th<\/sup> of the 7th<\/sup> month was to Di Guan, one of the three Officials of the three realms \u2013 Tian (Heavens): celebrated on 15th<\/sup> of 1st<\/sup> Lunar Month), Di (Earth): celebrated on 15th<\/sup> of 7th<\/sup> Lunar Month and Shui (Water): celebrated on 15th<\/sup> of the 10th<\/sup> Lunar Month.<\/p>\n According to Taoist beliefs, praying to Di Guan is to ask for elimination of sins and debts. It is from this occasion of praying to the Di Guan or Di Yuan that the world\u00a0 of Zhong Yuan Jie came about.<\/p>\n “San Guan” – 3 Deities (painting: unknown)<\/p><\/div>\n <\/p>\n Family….<\/span><\/p>\n For\u00a0 the family, 7th<\/sup> month is also a time for them to remember their ancestors. During the old days, each family,\u00a0 would have their ancestral altar at home. For the Hokkiens it would usually be placed\u00a0 next to another\u00a0 altar\u00a0\u00a0 dedicated to Tua Pek Kong. For their\u00a0 most recently\u00a0\u00a0 departed \u2013 a parent or grandparent \u2013 the family, usually the grandma or mother would prepare the offerings.\u00a0 The departed and the\u00a0 ancestors further down the line would be’invited”\u00a0 to come and partake of the offering. For us kids, it was also another occasion we waited for, for it meant\u00a0 that we could have\u00a0 more elaborate dishes that we would not get otherwise. Chinese New Year and 7th<\/sup> Month are the two major occasions that children\u00a0 look forward to\u00a0 and our poor parents would dread it\u00a0 as they would need to find money to cook up at least something worthy for their ancestors.<\/p>\n Today, many would have have moved the family ancestral tablets to the temples and so, offerings would be at the temples. Food offering’s also\u00a0 became simplified with fast food that could be the packed\u00a0 from chicken rice to Kentucky Fried Chicken.<\/p>\n 7th<\/sup> Month represents a spectrum of Chinese culture,\u00a0 of beliefs, tradition and customs, with variations for different dialect groups, and in some instances also influenced by the\u00a0 practices from ancestral place of origin in China. We remember our ancestors;\u00a0 we think about the wandering souls (those whom the descendants have forgotten or who may no longer have living\u00a0 descendants); we seek pardons from the Official of the Earth Realm. This we do, to preserve our unique culture which\u00a0 also evolves with the times.<\/p>\n Victor Yue is Taoist and spends much of his time researching and documenting Chinese religious practices and rituals.<\/em><\/p>\n Here is a\u00a0 video<\/a> he took on a auction on Pulau Ubin for the Hungry Ghost Festival<\/p>\n Here is another of Victor’s\u00a0 video on “Breaking Hell’s Gates”\u00a0 <\/a>–\u00a0 a rare ritual conducted only once every 5 years\u00a0 at Peck San Theng <\/a>Temple in Bishan<\/p>\n At Bukit Brown during the 7th month,\u00a0 tour groups also encounter evidence of rituals and offerings<\/em><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The Origins, Traditions and Beliefs of what today has become popularly\u00a0 known as “The Hungry Ghost Festival” by Victor Yue Between the ancient Chinese characters\u00a0\u00a0 and the modern English vocabulary, there seems to be a big mis-match as to\u00a0 what the festival is about. But for ease of communication, some terms that seem to be closest in translation would\u00a0 it seems,\u00a0 have to do. In some cases, such as events,\u00a0 more exciting phrases were coined\u00a0\u00a0 in Chinese and explains I […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":4837,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[92,83,161,116,81],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4835","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-culture-society","category-featured","category-heritage-2","category-history-2","category-slider"],"yoast_head":"\n
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