Does July 15th refer to the lunar calendar or the solar calendar?

Ghost Festival is another name for Mid-Autumn Festival, which refers to the lunar calendar.

Mid-Autumn Festival, that is, the ancestor worship festival in July and a half, is also called Shigu Festival, Ghost Festival, Solitary Festival and Local Officials' Day. Festival customs mainly include ancestor worship, setting off river lanterns, worshipping the dead and burning paper ingots.

Mid-Autumn Festival evolved from the ancient "July and a half", harvesting crops in autumn and offering sacrifices to ancestors. July and a half is a festival to celebrate the harvest and repay the earth in early autumn, and some crops have matured. According to the law, people should worship their ancestors and report Qiu Cheng to them with new rice. It is a traditional cultural festival to commemorate ancestors, and its cultural core is to respect ancestors and filial parents.

"July 30th" was originally an ancient folk festival to worship ancestors, but it was called "Central Plains Festival" and originated from Taoism after the Eastern Han Dynasty. Taoism believes that July and a half is the birthday of local officials. On the day when they pray for forgiveness, all ghosts will be released from the underworld, and the dead ancestors can go home for reunion. Therefore, the festival of ancestor worship in July and a half is called "Central Plains Festival". Buddhism is called "Kasahara Festival".

In the Tang Dynasty, the rulers respected Taoism, and the Taoist Mid-Autumn Festival became popular, and gradually fixed the "Mid-Autumn Festival" as the name of the festival. Zhongyuan Festival, Shangyuan Festival and Xiayuan Festival are collectively called "Sanyuan Festival".

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Legend of "Ghost Festival"

1. Manglietia saved her mother.

The layman's name in Manglietia is Rob, and Mrs. Qing Ti, a widowed mother, is stingy and good at killing people. However, Rob is very kind. He always does good deeds and respects the three treasures. One day, when he was going out to do business, he told his mother that he would divide the family money into three parts, one for himself, one for his mother and one for charity at home.

Unexpectedly, since Rob left home, Mrs. Qingti has killed chickens and geese every day. When a group of people came to the door, they ordered the servants to beat them out with sticks, and even let the dogs chase the beggars.

Because of her evil deeds, she was punished for falling into nasal hell after her death and suffering day and night. Rob was very sad after his mother died. He thought that becoming a monk could repay his mother's kindness, so he became famous by worshipping Buddha as a teacher. A few years later, I became the first magical power, surpassing Lohan.

Mu Lian wanted to know where his parents were born after their death, but he found his mother in a nose hell. In order to save his mother, he went to hell himself and saw the scene of hell:

Among them, people who suffer will die every day. Or sword tree, or iron plow tongue, or copper juice pouring mouth, or hot iron fire pill swallowing. Still holding a copper pillar, the body is rotten. Every day when the cow head is late, the jailer will come and handcuff it. Boiling iron pot soup is painful.

After Mulian turned to Tathagata for help, he had to rescue his mother from hell and reincarnate as a dog in the city. Forty-nine days after Mulian laid the Dojo, his mother was able to ascend to heaven.

Burning paper money

It is said that after Cai Lun invented papermaking in the Eastern Han Dynasty, his business was booming and he earned a lot of money. Brother Cai Mo and sister-in-law Hui Niang are envious. Huiniang wants Cai Mo to learn papermaking from Cai Lun. But Cai Mo's perseverance was not enough, and he hastily opened his own paper shop before he got home. As a result, the quality of the paper made is very poor, and no one cares, so the couple are worried about a room full of paper.

Finally, Huiniang came up with a clever plan, attached it to Cai Mo's ear and taught it again.

That night, the neighbor suddenly heard the voice of crying from Cai Mo's house. Everyone rushed over to ask, only to know that Huiniang died suddenly last night. The next morning, Cai Mo cried her eyes out in front of Hui Niang's coffin in front of her neighbors. Burning paper in tears. Burning and burning, I suddenly heard something in the coffin.

After a while, I heard Huiniang's voice calling inside: "Open the door, open the door quickly, I'm back". Everyone was stunned and finally got up the courage to open the coffin. Huiniang jumped out and told her neighbors that she had gone to the underworld after her death, and the king of hell made her suffer. Because Cai Mo burned a lot of paper money for her, all the children scrambled to push her. She gave Yan the money again and Yan asked her to come back.

Cai Mo deliberately asked, "I didn't send you money?" Huiniang pointed to the burning fire and said, "That's money! The underworld is made of paper. " Hearing this, Cai Mo immediately went to hold two bundles of paper to burn, saying that this would make the parents in the underworld suffer less.

Neighbors saw this and found that paper money was so useful, so everyone paid for paper made by Cai Mo. A few days after the news spread, all the newspapers of Cai Mohist School were sold out.

As Huiniang returns to Yang on the 15th day of the seventh lunar month, people will burn incense and paper for their ancestors on this day. This custom has been passed down to this day.

Baidu Encyclopedia-July 15