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My Hong Kong | Your Hungry Ghost Festival survival guide: don’t ‘borrow’ an umbrella, use a bus shelter at night or tap someone’s shoulder
- During the Hungry Ghost Festival, the deceased visit the living world. To avoid incurring the wrath of a spirit, there are things you should and shouldn’t do
- Don’t ‘borrow’ an umbrella – it might be housing a wandering ghost; don’t tap anyone’s shoulder (and don’t let anyone tap yours); and don’t schedule a wedding
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The rainy season is in full swing in Hong Kong, and most of us have probably picked up someone else’s umbrella by mistake or “borrowed” an unclaimed umbrella because we’ve misplaced ours.
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While this might seem like an innocuous mistake, it’s a very big no-no during the month of the Hungry Ghost Festival.
In Chinese culture, the entire seventh month of the Lunar calendar – July 29 to August 26 on the Gregorian calendar – is known as the “ghost month” and is dedicated to the dead. The last two weeks of August – which is from August 12 to 26 this year – is the peak time for the deceased to visit the world of the living.
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During this period, people honour the memories of the dead by presenting food, as well as burning “hell money” and paper representations of luxury items such as expensive jewellery, flashy cars, opulent mansions and even the latest smartphone models.
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