Halloween is a non-event in China other than a ploy to get more customers into bars in more western areas or sell more stuff. It is a store decorating holiday, not a dress-up trick or treating kind of thing. But the Chinese do love costumes and once again, here at Maple Leaf, we had our Halloween dressing-up day and party on Thursday. Here are a few pics of the day and night festivities.
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China has its own ghost festival, known as the Hungry Ghost Festival in southern China and Southeast Asia. It falls on July 15 of the lunar calendar, or mid-August of the Gregorian calendar.
“On that day, Chinese legend says, the gate to hell is opened at midnight, and ghosts swarm into the world of human beings in search of food and money.
These ghosts, who have been starving for a whole year, will enter households if they cannot find enough delicacies in the street. Therefore, people in southern China traditionally put chicken, meat, vegetables, rice, tea and fruit on their doorsteps that day.
In other parts of the country people simply burn pieces of paper resembling currency notes, and in larger cities in East China, such as Shanghai and Hangzhou, the ghosts are now welcomed by candles lit along the street.” (From China Daily)
According to website editor Shi, the streets that night are empty in Chongqing, as few dare leave their house. “They say if a ghost finds you in the street and follows you back home, your family will have bad luck all year,” she said.”
