The Understanding of Seventh Month Prayers and its activities

Lunar 7th Month Festival to any Chinese descendant used to be an annual event for ancestors’ worship. But, my new neighbour who was shifted last month seem to be busy than usual. They were originally migrated from mainland China and being told by their acquaintance that to offer joss papers every day for wandering spirits during that month.

Its good to follow the tradition for 7th month prayers. However, it is also fundamentally for people to know the meaning and purpose rather than to follow blindly. In Chinese tradition, the fifteenth day of the seventh month in the lunar calendar is called Zhong Yuan Festival 中元節 and the whole of seventh month is also commonly known as the Ghost Month, in which ghosts and wandering spirits, including those of the deceased ancestors, revisit a cosmopolitan world from the lower realm.

Intrinsic to the Ghost Month is ancestor worship, where traditionally the filial piety of descendants extends to their ancestors even after their deaths. Activities during the month would include preparing ritualistic food offerings, burning incense and joss paper, a papier-mache form of material items such as clothes, gold and other paper effigies for the visiting spirits of the ancestors. Elaborate meals would be served with empty seats for each of the deceased in the family treating the deceased as if they are still living. Ancestor worship is what distinguishes Qing Ming Festival from Ghost Month because the latter includes paying respects to all deceased regardless known or unknown.

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