A Quick Overview of the Hungry Ghost Festival Worship: Rules for Incense of Different Colours

The Hungry Ghost Festival is characterised by a clearly defined order of worship, which typically begins with the worship of the deity, the Earth Official (Di Guan Da Di), followed by that of the ancestors, and then the roadside spirits.

Generally, the time for worshipping the Earthly Official is at 11:00 a.m. This is marked by the presentation of offerings of fruits, three sacrifices, vegetarian food, tea and wine. At noon, the ancestors are worshipped with offerings of cooked food and rice, three sacrifices and four fruits, tea and wine, joss paper such as yijin, and large silver.

A reminder that the order of worship at the Hungry Ghost Festival should be strictly adhered to. It is important to note that different targets have corresponding times of worship. It is therefore essential to be aware of these times in order to avoid any disrespect.

You should also avoid saying your own name or the names of your friends and relatives or praying to the wandering spirits. Instead, one should ask them to enjoy the offerings and respectfully ask them to leave.

Incense on the market generally comes in three colours: red, yellow and green. Red represents festivity, yellow represents reverence and green represents obscurity. Therefore, gold-footed or red-footed incense is used to worship the deities, red-footed incense is used to worship the ancestors and green-footed incense is used to pay respect to the spirits.

Why Do We Burn Paper Clothes During Roadside Worship?

Paper clothes, also known as sutra clothes, are clothes worn by spirits that represent various daily necessities and are used specifically to deliver lonely souls and wild spirits who have no offspring to worship from suffering, as a charity to rescue orphaned souls without a master.

Wandering souls generally haunt at night, so the paper clothes should not be burned until after sunset. First, a winter melon is used as an incense burner, and a pair of red candles and three joss sticks are lit; then Guanyin clothes are burned to invite Guanyin to maintain the order of the spirits at the site, and 36 pairs of clothes for late are burned so that the wandering souls can receive the offerings.

The offerings, comprising three cups of rice wine and three pairs of chopsticks, are to be placed on the road. Subsequently, the following items are to be burned: note offering, silver and gold joss paper, Yuanbao, underworld bank note and seven-coloured clothes. Once the ritual has been completed, the paper coins are sprinkled at the end, thus concluding the process. During the burning of the clothes, it is of the utmost importance to maintain a respectful and serious demeanor, refraining from any form of jest or frivolity. The clothes and paper should be kept intact; they mustn't be trampled upon or otherwise disrupted upon the roadside after burning. Any items remaining from the ritual should not be taken home and should not be left until the joss papers have been burnt.

Why do We Need Bean Curd and Sprouts to Worship the Roadside Spirits?

In the 7^th lunar month, when the gate of the underworld is believed to be unlatched, there are numerous taboos observed. It is not uncommon to observe the inclusion of sprouts, bean curd, or watered-down rice among the offerings at roadside burnings. But why is that?

It is believed that any foodstuffs presented to the spirits will inevitably turn into ashes, while sprouts, tofu, and longan have a lot of moisture and are more difficult to incinerate in the hope that they can feed the hungry ghosts.

#万富 #继承传统