When is Ghost Festival?

Ghost Festival has four festivals: Shangsi Festival (March 3rd), Tomb-Sweeping Day, Zhongyuan Festival and Han Festival.

1, Shangsi Festival

Commonly known as March 3, it is a traditional festival of the Han nationality. Before the Han dynasty, it was designated as the fourth day of March, and later as the third day of March in the summer calendar. Shangsi Festival is the most important festival in ancient times. People go to the water to take a bath together, which is called "praise" Since then, sacrificial banquets, meandering water and outings have been added.

There is a saying in Shangsi Festival that witchcraft originated from blue soup to ward off evil spirits, and blue soup is used to ward off evil spirits. Blue grass, as a spiritual thing, has the characteristics of aroma. Before major sacrificial ceremonies were held, the ancients fasted, including the best bathing method at that time, "blue soup bathing".

2. Tomb-Sweeping Day

Also known as outing festival, outing festival, March festival, ancestor worship festival, etc. This festival is at the turn of mid-spring and late spring. Tomb-Sweeping Day is the biggest ancestor worship festival of the Chinese nation, which originated from ancient ancestor belief and spring worship custom. Tomb-Sweeping Day has two connotations of nature and humanity, which are both natural solar terms and traditional festivals. Grave-sweeping and ancestor-worship outing are two major themes of Tomb-Sweeping Day, which have been passed down since ancient times in China.

3. Mid-Autumn Festival

It is the name of Taoism, which is called July 30 in folk customs and Arahara Festival in Buddhism. Festival customs mainly include offering sacrifices to ancestors, setting off river lanterns, offering sacrifices to the dead, burning paper ingots and offering sacrifices to the ground. Its birth can be traced back to ancestor worship and related festivals in ancient times. July is auspicious month and filial month, and July 30 is a festival for people to celebrate the harvest and repay the earth in early autumn. Some crops are ripe, so people should worship their ancestors according to the law and report Qiu Cheng to them with new rice and other sacrifices. It is a traditional cultural festival to commemorate ancestors, and its cultural core is to respect ancestors and do filial piety.

4. Cold Clothes Festival

Also known as "October Dynasty", "Ancestor Festival", "Ghost Festival", "Autumn Festival" and "October 1st", it is a traditional sacrificial festival in China. The first day of October in the lunar calendar is the first day after the cold winter. In ancient times, there were customs such as sending clothes, offering sacrifices and cooking stoves to remind people that winter is coming. On this day, women will take out cotton-padded clothes and give them to their relatives who guard the border and serve the corvee in the distance. While sending cold clothes to relatives, it will gradually develop into sending cold clothes to ancestors and the dead.