The Ghost Festival (Ullambana, Zhongyuan, Obon)

The story behind the day

The Ghost Festival is East Asia's great rite of the dead, held in the seventh lunar month and centred on its fifteenth day. Buddhists know it as Ullambana, after the legend of Mulian, who sought to rescue his mother from suffering, and they make offerings to monks on behalf of their ancestors. Daoists mark the same day as Zhongyuan, which honours the Earth Official's birthday. In Chinese communities the gates of the underworld are said to open and hungry ghosts are fed; in Japan the festival is Obon, when the family's ancestors are welcomed home.^[1–5]

Origins

The Buddhist legend tells how Mahāmaudgalyāyana, called Mulian in Chinese, searches the cosmos for his dead mother and finds her suffering in hell. He cannot free her alone, and the Buddha replies that sons and daughters can rescue their parents through gifts to the monks at the seventh month's full moon. The Bussetsu Urabon Sutra, which Sōtō Zen cites for the tradition, describes a ceremony the Buddha held for Maudgalyāyana's deceased mother. Offerings at the Ullambana feast were thought to free ancestors across seven earlier generations. The Yulanpen Sutra, which tells the story in Chinese, is widely thought to have been composed in China, although a 2023 study argues for an Indic origin, and scholars debate the Sanskrit source of the name.^[10–13]

How it is kept

In Chinese communities the seventh month is the time when the gates of the underworld open and spirits roam the earth. The ghosts are called hungry because they have no descendants to make offerings, and people burn joss sticks, paper money and special clothing, and set out food. The Encyclopedia of Religion describes three rituals in the month: offerings at the doorway at its start, a great feast for the ghosts on the fifteenth with Buddhist and Daoist priests chanting, and a closing of the gates on its last day. Lanterns on tall posts and floating rafts guide the spirits. In Singapore the month-long observance includes getai stage shows with the front row left empty for the spirits.^{[4, 8–9, 16–17]}

Across traditions

In Japan the same festival is Obon, observed over several days numbered from the thirteenth, in July or August depending on the region. Fires of hemp stalks guide the ancestors home on the thirteenth, a shelf of offerings is set up, graves are cleaned, and the spirits are sent back on the fifteenth or sixteenth, in some places with lantern-lit boats. Obon is above all a family occasion, when relatives return home and welcome the ancestors at the household altar.^{[5, 7, 18]}