Just as the Americans have Halloween, the Chinese have the Hungry Ghost Festival (also known as Zhong Yuan Jie in Chinese), when the souls of the dead are believed to roam the earth.
According to custom, these ghosts can get up to mischief if ignored so all sorts of offerings are made during this period, which is the seventh month in the lunar calendar.
Making offerings:
- Notice those metal bins scattered around residential areas and housing estates?
- They are specifically provided to contain the stacks of hell money and paper offerings, such as cars, watches and jewellery, that are burned by relatives to appease their deceased family members – taking care of their material needs even in the afterlife.
- Do watch your step in case you trample on food left out in the open. Although many place their food offerings (oranges, rice or even suckling pig) and joss sticks on proper altars, others tuck them at the side of footpaths or even alongside trees.
- And as if satisfying the ghosts’ appetites for money and food wasn’t enough, taking care of their entertainment is also important.
- Large tents are set up in open fields to host raucous dinners and auctions in heartland estates like Ang Mo Kio and Yishun. There are performances too, such as Chinese operas and 'getai' (literally ‘song stage’ in Chinese, or live stage performances), which feature tales of gods and goddesses, bawdy stand-up comedy, as well as song and dance numbers.
- Everyone is welcome – so sit back and enjoy the show. Just remember not to sit in the front row, unless you want to rub shoulders with the ‘special guests’.
- A mainstay of the festival is the 'getai' performance, thrown as a popular mode of entertainment for the wandering spirits. But 'getai' today is a very different animal – jazzed up with snazzy LED panel lit stages. Young, sexy perfomers sing not just traditional songs in dialect but thumping techno versions of English and Mandarin pop ditties. It appears that even the tastes of the spiritual world are moving with the times.
Hungry Ghost Festival: 9 questions with a paranormal investigator on haunted houses and what homeowners can do
In another encounter, Mr. Ace shared a photo of a silhouetted figure in an adjacent room. He lives alone
Since it’s the Hungry Ghost Festival in Singapore, or the Seventh Month, (Aug 8 – Sept 6, 2021) with the peak Ghost Day falling on Aug 22 (where the religious Chinese believe the Gates of Hell open), 99.co thought it would be interesting to speak to someone familiar with the subject.
In the day, Eugene Tay, who is in his early 40s, makes his living designing tech solutions but after office hours, he runs a platform called Supernatural Confessions, where Singapore residents who had supernatural experiences can share them and find comfort in like-minded individuals. He’s been doing this since 2012 and appears on web specials with hosts like former radio DJ Rozz, local playwright/director Jonathan Lim and Viddsee’s Letters to God series.
99.co asked Tay some questions related to bizarre stories and experiences he’s seen or heard in relation to hauntings in homes and what homeowners can do about them:
- Let’s start with a simple question. What are the dos and don’ts during the Hungry Ghost Festival?
- In a typical year, how often do you get queries or requests from homeowners to visit their homes to conduct an ‘investigation’?
- What sort of encounters have you had with homeowners about unexplainable phenomena in their houses?
- Any significant ones that you can share with us?
- Based on your experience, are they usually more psychological, scientifically explainable or spiritual?
- Can you share why only some houses experience these phenomena (and not other adjacent units or blocks)?
- What do you normally advise the homeowners on what they can do to ward off these terrible mishaps or occurrences?
- There are homeowners who invite their religious leaders to bless their houses before they move in. Can you explain the differences among these different prior move-in practices?
- Are there any haunted houses in Singapore that remain unsold or abandoned which you’ve documented or monitored?
‘I hope the deceased will receive these items’: Penang paper effigy apprentices passionate about their craft
Dozens of bamboo sticks were spread out on the floor within the reach of paper effigy maker Lee Teik Joo, while more were propped against the wall.
Using a small knife, he deftly sliced the sticks lengthwise and cut them into shorter pieces. Sound of the sticks shuffling against the floor filled the workshop, where Mr Lee and his co-workers were rushing an order.
“I’m used to having splinters in my fingers,” the 25-year-old told CNA.
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