Why is July and a half called Ghost Festival?

There is a saying in my hometown that "ghosts in July and a half, water on June 24th" means that these two things will definitely come on that day. The seventh day of the seventh lunar month is called Ghost Festival, which is to pick up ghosts and send them away. June 24th of the lunar calendar is a traditional grand festival "Torch Festival" for the Yi people in Chuxiong, their hometown. At this point, it was late summer. No matter how dry it used to be, it will definitely rain heavily on this day or during the Torch Festival.

Tomorrow is July and a half Ghost Festival. I don't believe in ghosts, but the old people believe or just hope that ghosts will come and come back to enjoy the sacrifices and paper money given to them. Of course, the old people just sent away the ghosts of their ancestors.

In July and a half, or one day in advance, at dusk, many people will send ghosts outside the courtyard, on the roadside and by the river. Some grandmothers, dragging their twisted or untwisted feet, carrying large or small baskets, wine, meat, fruits, malt and other sacrifices, led their little grandchildren or kannika nimtragol to the roadside to bid farewell to ghosts.

The flickering fire made their faces look terrible. In fact, half-aged children or young kannika nimtragol who follow their grandmothers often show fear.

Bags of big envelopes are filled with gold and silver, golden gold and silver, and the paper is folded into gold, showing the appearance of a silver ingot, which is very beautiful. But the living must not love and envy.

My high school political teacher's wife, a superstitious grandmother, always sells this kind of gold and silver. Not many people usually buy it, but there are many people in Tomb-Sweeping Day and before the Ghost Festival in July. Her family lives in Mishi Street, an old street. Gold and silver are folded, stacked and screened together with printed banknotes and new Ming coins, and sold as commodities together with hoes, plows, stoves, wooden barrels, shovels, pliers, pots and pans, pipes, straw hats and bamboo baskets of other old shops.

In fact, to send a ghost, you must first meet a ghost.

When I was a child, I used to live in my grandmother's house. I remember that at the beginning of July every year, I would take the ghosts of my ancestors home. This is called taking them home. Grandma does it very seriously. At the end of June, I bought all kinds of paper, folded gold paper with gold and silver, printed khaki papyrus of Mingbi, and wrapped it with gold and silver. When receiving ancestors, only wine, rice, fruit and other offerings are placed, incense is inserted outside the door, and several sticks or columns of incense are inserted in front of the sacrifice table. Poor farmers don't have incense burners. Grandma usually puts incense in a short bottle mouth, or puts incense in a big bowl with ashes from a stove pit, and sometimes puts incense in a big radish.

Grandma is very religious to her ancestors. No matter how poor she is, she will give her ancestors meat to drink and prepare a sumptuous meal when she comes back in July. Before eating every day, I will stand in front of the altar respectfully, holding the lit incense and worshiping devoutly. Sometimes she will let me burn incense and worship with her. I heard her devoutly calling the names of ancestors I didn't know at all, inviting them to go home and enjoy the sacrifice. She also apologized to the ghosts of some ancestors and expressed her feelings, saying that she often went to see their houses and graves, but because of poverty and busyness, she didn't always maintain their houses and graves, which might lead to rain and air leakage in their graves, and made a wish to them that when she would help them cultivate the soil and repair it. Then grandma will take the opportunity to gently blame them. She burned enough paper money for them and worshipped them in every solar term. Why bother people at home? Why not wish her family no disease and no disaster? I'm on the side or behind, listening to my grandmother talking to ghosts I can't see at all. Her vague and gloomy voice startled me. I thought she saw a ghost that had been dead for a long time. Looking at the misty smoke and the low and dark farmhouse roof, I often feel creepy and even afraid.

Of course, ancestral ghosts don't really come to eat sacrifices. I have observed it countless times and dare not ask my grandmother. Once, I finally couldn't help asking my grandmother why our ancestors didn't eat sacrifices. Grandma can't say clearly. However, after the sacrifice, she will bring me a fruit soon. Grandma loves me and knows what I think. It was very poor at that time. Fruit is seldom eaten in the countryside. Sacrificial fruits are usually good red pears, sometimes apples and bananas, which are more difficult to see in the countryside.

I don't know what it means to stir-fry malt before receiving ancestors. Malt grows in a big bowl or a small pot and grows very high, supporting the edge of the bowl. You can even lift the bowl with tall light green malt. Malt on the altar, I don't know whether it symbolizes the prosperity of future generations and brews a vibrant atmosphere, or because I know that my ancestors were farmers and I can't forget the crops, so I put several bowls of vibrant malt on the altar to make the ghosts of my ancestors happy.

Sending ancestors is sending their ancestors' ghosts. Generally speaking, it is called sending ghosts and talking about one's ancestors. Of course, you can't say that. It is called sending ancestors.

When the envelope bag could not be filled in, grandma asked an old man in the neighbor's house in front to fill it in. He is educated, an old intellectual, familiar with folk culture and customs, and writes well in calligraphy. Their family is also grandma's, and I also call him grandpa.

I have been to their house several times and watched the old man with black reading glasses pack bags for many people in the village. Grandma and I asked him to fill it out, and he was very happy. He once taught me to fill in envelopes and write this special envelope for these dead people. Of course, I have to pay attention to the ancient method, write vertically, write from right to left, and write from top to bottom. I also have to pay attention to the unique titles such as "the first exam" and "the first exam"

This unique grandfather who could write envelopes to ancestors and deceased ancestors died in Kunming, the provincial capital, when I was in college. I didn't have time to correct a knowledge mistake I made in front of him. I'm sorry so far.

I remember when I was in junior high school, I lived in my grandmother's house near the school. I often helped my grandmother with housework, herded cattle and pulled weeds, and sometimes I dropped by, mostly to my grandfather's house where I could write envelopes nearby. I admire him very much. He wears glasses that are rare in the country. At that time, I thought that the old man with glasses must be knowledgeable, and he could write calligraphy, and he could write vertical envelopes for the ghosts of the deceased and ancestors.

One day, I came home, and there was no one at my grandmother's house. If you can't get in, go to the old man's house to do your homework. The old man casually rummaged through my schoolbag, looked at my book, and asked me how to pronounce the word "Sui" when he read the section "Emperor Wen punished his son" in the ancient history of China. At that time, the school had just started, the new book had just been issued, the teacher had not finished teaching this chapter, and there was no dictionary in my bag. I feel confused, blushing and ashamed. I almost burst into tears and didn't want to lose face in front of this kind old man. In front of this knowledgeable grandfather, I feel ashamed that I can't read, which is even more shameful than in front of my illiterate grandparents. I really want to show it to the old man so that he can respect me. However, I hesitated again and again, and let the old man read Laziness and tell him that he was "lazy". I don't remember whether the old man laughed at me.

I don't understand. The old man really doesn't know this word, and he still has to test me. What if I'm tested? He didn't tell me the correct pronunciation at last. Later I guessed that he really didn't know the word "spike"

Soon, I heard the teacher read the word in class. I am ashamed, but I have been unwilling and have no chance to correct my mistake face to face with the old man and tell him the correct pronunciation of this word. If he really doesn't know this word, then my mistake will be taken into the coffin by the old man and become my lifelong regret.

I wonder who wrote the envelope to the old man in the village after his death. It is estimated that fewer and fewer people write such envelopes to the dead. Although he taught me many times by hand, I have forgotten it for a long time now, and I haven't learned calligraphy well.

By the end of July, the ancestors who took them home had almost fulfilled their filial piety, and they would all be sent back to the underworld on this day. I've been thinking, aren't dead people and ghosts born in the world soon, then their ghosts don't exist, how can they be taken back and sent out in a few years or even hundreds of years?

However, even if everyone has this idea, they will not go into it. Anyway, we all know that receiving ancestors, sending ancestors or sending ghosts are all a kind of memory and an expression of missing.

On the day when the ancestors were sent away, every household put their addresses and names in envelopes, or envelopes containing ghosts, sealed them, took them out of suburbs and secluded places, threw them into the fire, burned them with hundreds of millions of paper money and sent them back. Wine, meat, paper horses, even paper color TVs, paper villas and paper cars should be sent into the fire. Only when it is burned can they take it to the underworld.

Wine can also be poured near burnt paper money, gold and silver. Some people also put bowls of malt, meat, vegetables and fruits beside the pile of paper money.

Ghosts are sent at dusk on July 30th or July14th, so it is forbidden to go out at night or come back late in these two days for fear of being haunted. Those who burn paper money and gold and silver will also come back in a hurry. At this time, I saw paper money and scraps of paper flying everywhere, paper fires flickering dimly, few passers-by, and the roadside and secluded places in the suburbs looked terrible everywhere. Think about it, so many ghosts that have been picked up by various families are sent to the dark roadside at once, which is really terrible.

Old folks are superstitious, and chronic diseases cannot be cured for a long time. They always think that they are haunted, and ask Duan Gong to send evil spirits with a sieve tray. This ghost is haunted, not in July and a half, but in July and a half. It is the ghost of one's ancestors, his own ghost, and does not harm his family.

Sick people are often evil spirits and ghosts, which are called evil spirits.

When I was a child, I often saw a sieve filled with gifts from evil spirits, bowls of wine and meat, and a lot of burnt paper money, gold and silver. If you can't provoke them or defeat them, please them with sacrifices and bribes and let these evil souls leave. I admire the cleverness of my hometown people and understand their helplessness.

It's already dusk on July 14, and someone must have sent ghosts in a quiet place on the roadside. I think of an ancient poem, "It rains a lot during the Qingming Festival, and pedestrians on the road want to break their souls". It was a festival to worship ancestors, and at this time it was a festival to worship ancestors.

Now many families are in trouble, so it's easy to make it simple. The day of July and a half is the day of receiving ancestors, sending them away, meeting ghosts and sending them away. Some people simply don't pick up the ghosts of their ancestors, and burn the packaged gold and silver coupons and paper money to their ancestors at the gate or a secluded roadside in mid-July, where they are called by their names, so that they can pick up the gold and silver coupons and paper money and enjoy the offerings such as wine, meat and fruit. That is to say, after they enjoy the offerings, they will return to the underworld with the gold and silver coupons and paper money burned to them. Of course, everyone is afraid of ghosts. Since they have expressed their memory and care for their ancestors, it is ok not to let them leave their homes. Besides, not many people believe in ghosts and gods. Besides, after more than three generations, the family relationship has faded? Now people can still remember their ancestors, just remember their ancestors.

The ancestral graves of my hometown are buried behind the village. When my grandmother was here, I followed Tomb-Sweeping Day to visit the grave. In July and a half, I followed her to pick up my ancestors at home and gave them away. My mother once followed my grandmother to the remote Seven Temple and visited the graves of earlier ancestors. Grandma has been dead for many years, and my mother won't do these things. Only my aunt, like her grandmother, insisted on going to Tomb-Sweeping Day to visit the grave year after year, and saw her ancestors farewell in July and a half.

My grandmother visited the grave countless times and sent her ancestors numerous times. Now she and her grandfather have been dead for many years, but my aunt won't do that. If there really is an underworld and the dead elders really have souls, then they can't enjoy sacrifices, gold and silver coins and mingbi coins.