Hungry ghosts

Don’t be surprised if lately your food seems to need an additional pinch of salt or dash of pepper. These are the days of the Hungry Ghosts, when spirits let out of hell roam among the living and dine at their tables.

That is one of the stories I grew up with. During the seventh month of the lunar calendar, the gates of hell are opened and the spirits are given leave to flit among the living, visiting relatives and friends, going where they please and, most of all, having their fill among the kitchens and tables of the living. And because the spirits may have already "tasted" your ulam, the food loses a bit of flavor. Although we were a Christian family since my grandparents’ time, such traditions and myths were passed on as part of our cultural heritage, just like the tales of the Monkey King and other Chinese legends. The rituals we did not practise included laying out "spirit food" specifically for the ghosts, and burning paper representations of houses and cars and television sets and clothes and money for them to use.

Because there are all these ghosts around, families hunker down and cocoon. Kids are told to watch what they say, because the ghosts may be listening. During the month there are no parties and festivities, especially weddings, people don’t move house or inaugurate a business, and kids are told not to go to the beach or they might be kidnapped by the especially feisty water ghosts. Restaurants of course dread the seventh month, missing out on all those ostentatious wedding and engagement and birthday parties. Others though take advantage of this time to commune more directly with the ghosts by asking them for "lucky numbers" which they then apply to the lotteries.

These days, less and less people, especially among the younger generations, follow the ghost month traditions, these practices all but consigned to superstitious folly. But with all things Chinois having become chic, there is a renewed interest in the Hungry Ghost Festival, even if only as a curiosity.

The seventh month this year began on July 25 and ends on Wednesday, August 23. However, this year has a leap seventh month, which covers the period August 24 to September 21. This peculiarity of the Chinese calendar system assigns a leap month every three years to balance the lunar and solar (or Western) calendars. Thus this year the ghosts get an extra month to pig out, so there are going to be some pretty plump and obese ghosts returning to hell come September 21.