Recently, have you notice that there are a lot of small roadside fires around the streets?

 
It’s because we are in鬼
=ghost 月= month (gwai2 jyut6) (the hungry ghost month)!!!

In Chinese tradition, the 15th day of the 7th month in the lunar calendar is called Ghost Day/Hungry Ghost Festival (鬼=ghost 節 = festival gwai2 zit3/盂蘭節jyu4 laan4 zit3) and the 7th month in general is regarded as the Ghost Month, in which ghosts and spirits, including those of the deceased ancestors, come out from the lower realm.


Story: One story of the Hungry Ghost Festival’s origin is long time ago, there is a boy called Mulian. He tried to save his mother from hell where she had to compete with other hungry ghosts for food.

When he tried to send his mother food, it would burst into flames, so the Buddha taught him to make food offerings to the ghosts to keep them from stealing (偷=steal tau1)his mother’s food.

Things to do :
‧Watch Yu Lan Chinese Operas (神=god功= power 戲 = opera san4 gung1 hei3)

‧Burn fake money and make other offerings to the restless spirits and their ancestors.(燒= burn 衣= clothes紙= paper siu1 yi1 zi2)

Taboo:Since we believe, during the seventh lunar month, the gates of Hell are opened and all the souls are set free to wander the Earth.
So there are a lot of taboos in this month

1)Don’t move house (搬= move屋= house bun1 uk1) or get married during this period. This is the connection to Feng Shui!

2) Don’t bring an umbrella (遮ze1)into the house after it was used in the night. It is said that one may bring/carry in spirits to the house.

3)Don’t kill any rare insect eg. moth, grasshopper, butterfly(蝴蝶wu4 dip6 ), that visits the house during this time. They apparently are manifestation of spirits or ancestors paying a visit.

4)Don’t comb or brush your hair (梳= comb 頭= head so1 tau4) with anything but your hands and fingers.

Ghost Month in 2011: 31st July to 28th August
Website: http://www.discoverhongkong.com/eng/events/festival-hungry-ghosts.html

In Cantonese, 釣 (diu3) means fish (v),

Literally, 釣金龜 (diu3 gam1 gwai1) means fish for gold turtle, however, there is another meaning in Cantonese, Can you guess what that is? (Tips :many girls dream about it.)