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Hungry Ghost Festival & Chinese Lunar Seventh month

Today I woke up to the wafting burning smell of incense estate-wide. Yes, it is that time of the year again when the gates of hell are believed to open and where a myriad of ghosts make their reappearances back on earth. Many of the ghosts are coming to earth to relieve the good old times: the offerings offered by the streets, the entertainment galore in the ‘Getais’ (Chinese variety shows); to visit their relatives or some are even back with a vengeance!

Though I am not a superstitious person, I would still rather believe in the ‘safety precautions’ to take during this hungry ghost month. Let us take a review of these
top 10 ‘safety precautions’ I have compiled:

1) Avoid outdoors where possible (good suggestion, with so many of the ghosts on the streets, as believed)

2) Avoid outdoors at night (some believe the ghosts will lurk only during the night and not just the day).


3) Avoid swimming and water sports (you would not want to be ‘pulled’ into the deep seas!)


4) NEVER step on the offerings by the roadside or even worse grab the oranges or apples to consume.


5) Do not sit on the first row of empty seats in front of the ‘getais’: these are reserved for ‘them’.


6) Be more gracious this month, stop all those “Go to hell !” or those ‘brothers’ will think you are one of them, speaking their ‘language’.


7)Do not wear black, else you may see xxxxxxx


8) Do not be afraid, live your life normally, else your ‘self-prophecy’ may lead you to see them more easily!

9) Avoid overseas travel

10) Ghosts love the wild jungles too, try not to do so much trekking else you may mistake some white fog appearing from nowhere as mist!

Above is my list! Meanwhile during this month, you may want to catch the dozens of ‘Getais’ featuring artistes singing in Cantonese, comedy slapsticks, scantily-dressed singers and dancers (much to the delight of ‘Lau Ah Peks’ (Old Uncles) or should we call them “Chee Kok Pehs” (Lustful Old Uncles)!

I will see whether I have time to attend one or two ‘Getais’ and pose my experiences here!

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Comments

Heng Leong said…
Interesting post. I wonder if everyone observes this...

You can read about Ghosts in Malaysia in this post, Ghosts Still Live Malaysia.
Fri Aug 28, 03:57:00 PM GMT+8
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