What's the date of 2018 Zhongyuan Festival? Why is it called ghost festival
4hw.com.cn: the Zhongyuan Festival is coming in 2018. It's on July half. It's often called ghost festival. It's said that ghosts haunt the sun on this day. What's the date of Zhongyuan Festival? Why is it called ghost festival? Let's have a look at it with Xiaobian.
The 2018 Zhongyuan Festival is August 25, 2018, Saturday, July 15 of the lunar calendar
The name "Zhongyuan" originated from the Northern Wei Dynasty, which is a Taoist saying. According to the ancient books, the 15th day of the first month is the "Shangyuan", which is the blessing day for the heavenly officials; the 15th day of July is the "Zhongyuan", which is the forgiveness day for the earth officials; the 15th day of October is the "Xiayuan", which is the relief day for the water officials. According to the records in the book of practice: 'on the first day of the middle of July, the officials of the earth came down and determined the good and evil of the world. The Taoists chanted sutras at night, and the hungry prisoners were also freed. Therefore, on the 15th of July, the people will prepare a lot of animal rituals to worship the emperor and his ancestors.
Zhongyuan Festival is the product of the combination of Taoism and Chinese traditional folk customs. They can be corresponding, mainly based on the same Cosmology: the three realms of heaven, earth and water, which are transformed into the three realms under the jurisdiction of Tianguan, diguan and Shuiguan. The common folk term "three realms" refers to the three realms of gods.
The legend of Zhongyuan Festival
There are many legends about the Zhongyuan Festival. The most important one is that on the first day of the seventh lunar month, Yan Luo opened the gate of ghosts and released a group of unaccompanied ghosts to enjoy people's sacrifice. On the last day of July, before the ghost gate was closed again, these ghosts had to return to the underworld. So July is also called ghost month. The story of Mu Lian saving his mother: among the disciples of the Buddha, mu Qianlian, who was the first one in Shentong, thought about his dead mother. He used Shentong to see that his mother had fallen into the evil ghost way and lived an unsatisfied life because of her greedy karma in the world. Muqianlianyu used his magic power to turn food into food for his mother, but her mother did not change her greed. When she saw the food coming, she was afraid that other evil spirits would snatch it. When the food came to her mouth, it turned into charcoal and could not be swallowed. Although muqianlian is a son of man, she can't save her mother. She is very painful. Please ask the Buddha what to do. The Buddha said: 'July 15 is the last day for Jiexia to live in peace and practice. Dharma is full of goodness. On this day, people in the lane can be provided with hundreds of flavors, and their merits and virtues are limitless. With this compassion, they can save their dead mother. This is the origin of Taiwan's "good brothers".
Every year on the 15th of July in the lunar calendar, it is called the "Yulan basin Festival", also known as the "Zhongyuan Festival". In some places, it is also known as the "Ghost Festival" and "shigu". This is a Buddhist ceremony in India. In order to recommend their ancestors, Buddhists held the "Yulan basin meeting". In the Sutra, the "Yulan basin Sutra" was designed to cultivate filial piety and encourage Buddhist disciples, which was in line with the popular belief of mourning the distant place first in China, so it became more and more popular.
China began to follow this example from the Liang Dynasty and formed the Zhongyuan Festival. But later, in addition to setting up a room for monks, there were also activities such as worship and fireworks.