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Articles, Culture, Folklore, Religion, Writings

Chinese Folklore: Lingering Ghosts Beyond Ghost Month

September 2, 2024 Jennifer Leave a comment

According to the Chinese lunar calendar, this year today, September 2nd, marks the end of the month of guǐ yuè (鬼月) or Ghost Month. While the 15th day of the month or Hungry Ghost Festival is considered to be the most important of times, the last day of the seventh month in the Chinese lunar calendar is also significant as it is when the doors to the underworld are closed once again, and the roaming spirits who have come to visit are sent back from whence they came.

Sending Back Spirits at the End of Ghost Month

Traditionally, Taoist priests would perform chants to announce to the spirits that it was time for their return to the underworld, known as yīnjiān (陰間) or literally the “moon or hidden/shaded place”, and to drive them out from the world of the living, known in Taoism as yángjiān (陽間) or literally the “sun or open place” with the sound of their chanting. What is perhaps more familiar and common nowadays, however, is the lighting of lanterns, typically lotus-shaped, and floating them on lakes or rivers to guide those visiting spirits back to the underworld. Families will often write the names of ancestors believed to be visiting them on their lanterns to ensure they will be followed back. Many will burn further offerings fashioned out of joss paper such as money or other material possessions for ancestral spirits to take with them.

Aside from the lanterns floated explicitly for ancestral spirits, additional lanterns are made for any wandering ghosts, including those whose grievances were so strong that their souls were trapped in the world of the living, in hopes of guiding them to where they can be at peace. Despite one’s best efforts, however, some ghosts never make it back and remain in the world of the living, even well after the end of Ghost Month.

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Articles, Culture, Folklore, Religion, Writings

Chinese Folklore: The Hungry Ghost Festival

August 18, 2024 Jennifer 1 Comment

Although the month of guǐ yuè (鬼月) or Ghost Month is considered to be a highly superstitious and supernatural period overall, there are certain points in the month that are considered especially important when it comes to being mindful of the spirits believed to be freely roaming the world of the living. The foremost of which takes place on the 15th day of the month, which according to the Chinese lunar calendar takes place today, August 18th, this year. It is on this day that spiritual activity is believed to be at its peak.

This day is so significant that it is often distinguished from the rest of the month by being referred to as the “Hungry Ghost Festival” (sometimes just “Ghost Festival”), although this name is occasionally used for the entire month’s festivities.

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Articles, Culture, Folklore, Religion, Writings

Chinese Folklore: Entering the Month of Ghosts (鬼月)

August 4, 2024 Jennifer 2 Comments

According to Chinese folklore, there are certain times when one must be especially careful of the supernatural, and this year today, August 4th, marks the beginning of guǐ yuè (鬼月) or “Ghost Month,” which is the seventh month of the Chinese lunar calendar.

Starting tonight at 11 PM through until September 2nd, it is believed that the doors of the underworld are open, and apparitions of all kinds are free to roam the world of the living. Those ancestral spirits who have families will visit their loved ones in their homes, while those ghosts who have none will wander the streets, seeking some form of relief, often in the form of food or entertainment.

Aside from mainland China and Hong Kong, Ghost Month is observed by a number of Asian countries, including Taiwan, Vietnam, Singapore, Malaysia, and the Philippines, with similar traditions seen in other countries like Thailand and Japan.

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Articles, Food, Recipes, Writings

Will You Be Mine? Making Chocolate for Valentine’s Day.

February 14, 2018 Jennifer Leave a comment

Russell Stover. Godiva. Lindt. It’s hard to beat standards like a box of chocolates as a gift for Valentine’s Day. Even today more than one billion dollars are spent on chocolates for this romantic holiday in the United States alone. In Japan, it is a tradition for women to give chocolate to men on Valentine’s Day. There are generally two (now three) types of chocolate given: giri-choco (義理チョコ), or “obligatory chocolate,” honmei-choco (本命チョコ), or “true feelings chocolate,” and now recently tomo-choco (友チョコ), or “friendship chocolate.”

While the meaning behind honmei-choco and tomo-choco are pretty self-explanatory, the practice of giri-choco has become an increasingly contentious issue. In some workplaces, giri-choco has even been banned as it compels women to gift chocolate to men and puts them under unnecessary stress; many women have shared that they have often pulled all-nighters on the eve of Valentine’s Day to make enough for all of the men they had to give chocolate to. There have even been cases where the practice has been discouraged as many men have expressed that they do not even want chocolate, especially as it is widely expected for such gifts to be reciprocated a month later on White Day, when it is tradition for men to present gifts to women. As a result, more and more often women have purchased inexpensive candy bars as giri-choco rather than pricey brand-name gifts, fewer still make them by hand. In the case of honmei-choco (and sometimes even tomo-choco), however, many women make these chocolates themselves as it is commonly held that one’s feelings are not true if they are in the form of ready-made, store-bought chocolate.

Why not make a sweet gift like no other yourself this year? By following these simple tips, you can not only tailor your selection of chocolates to your intended’s tastes, but you can also leave an impression that he or she will not forget for quite some time!

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Articles, Culture, Writings

Summertime Dancing Obon in Japan

July 13, 2016 Jennifer Leave a comment

Obon, the Festival of Lanterns

Every summer, people of all ages and religious backgrounds come together, often dressed in yukata, light cotton summer kimono, to celebrate being alive and honor those who have passed on, known as Obon.

The Obon festival, also popularly known as the “Festival of Lanterns”, is a 500-year-old tradition rooted in Japanese Buddhism belief that ancestral spirits return to their homes from the world of the dead during this particular time of year to be with their families.

Traditionally, families light lanterns to welcome and show their ancestors the way home as well as place offerings in the form of food, drinks, and flowers at their graves. The biggest attraction to Obon celebrations, however is the festive and family-friendly atmosphere filled with music, dance, food and good-natured fun. Usually set in the courtyards, lawns, or parking lots of Buddhist temples, families come together to savor some delicious food from the many stalls, play games, and immerse themselves in the lively rhythm of taiko drums. Continue reading Summertime Dancing Obon in Japan →

Articles, History, Writings

Women of the Floating World: Shizuka Gozen

May 16, 2014 Jennifer Leave a comment

The Dancing Women of Kyoto

Even at the height of Heian promiscuity, when noblemen had no problem finding a companion for the night and flitted merrily from one woman’s chamber to another, there were also prostitutes who offered a different sort of pleasure.

At one end of the scale were ordinary prostitutes who wandered the streets, waterways, hills, and woods and were referred to as “wandering women,” “floating women,” or “play women”.

At the other extreme were cultivated, refined professionals whom in English we might call courtesans. Some were of good family, fallen upon hard times. Others were noted for their beauty, brilliance, or talent. Skilled musicians, dancers, and singers, they were often the invited guests and chosen companions of the aristocrats. These high-class courtesans were the original precursors of the geisha and the oiran.

The most popular of these courtesans were the shirabyoshi (“white rhythm”) dancing women. To heighten their allure, they cross-dressed in white male clothing and manly court caps. They carried swords like men and performed highly charged erotic songs and dances to music with a rhythmic beat. Like the supermodels and rock singers of today, they were stars and the chosen companions of the country’s most powerful men.

The Last Dance of Shizuka Gozen

The most celebrated of all shirabyoshi was Shizuka Gozen, the concubine of the 12^th century legendary hero Minamoto no Yoshitsune. She was renowned throughout the country for extraordinary beauty and also for the power of her dancing. In Japan, dance began as a way of supplicating the gods, (but eventually transformed in later times to be equated with prostitution) and once, when the country had been suffering from drought for a hundred days, the gods responded by sending rain as soon as Shizuka began to dance – or so goes the legend. Centuries later, when the geisha first appeared, they would claim Shizuka Gozen as their ancestor.

Like most women in Japanese literature, history, and legend, Shizuka Gozen’s story is famous because of how that story ended. In 1185, when her lover, Minamoto no Yoshitsune, was forced to flee Kyoto and escape from his older brother and the new Shogun, Yoritomo, Shizuka Gozen accompanied him. However, Yoshitsune eventually sent her and the rest of his entourage back as it was only slowing him down.

Soon after Shizuka was captured and brought before Yoritomo. There she was interrogated as to Yoshitsune’s whereabouts. But, being plucky as well as beautiful – characteristics which would come to distinguish the geisha too – she refused to give anything away.

Yoritomo then forced her to dance for him, intending to intimidate and frighten the 18-year-old girl. But Shizuka did not flinch. Instead, she danced and sang a song full of praise for her lover, Yoshitsune, and longing to be at his side. This greatly angered Yoritomo, and he intended on having her put to death, but his wife, sympathetic to the young woman, begged for Shizuka’s life. With her help, Shizuka Gozen was finally released.

However, by this point it became apparent that Shizuka was pregnant with Yoshitsune’s child. Yoritomo declared that if it were a daughter she could live on peacefully, but if it were a son, he would have the child killed. Months later, she gave birth to a son, but again Yoritomo’s wife intervened and the child was spared but sent away to live with Shizuka’s mother.

Free to do as she pleased, Shizuka sought to follow her lover once more, but upon hearing of his death, she became a nun in Kyoto and died of grief. According to some tales, however, Shizuka was later killed along with her and Yoshitsune’s child, a son, by the order of Yoritomo.

Both the song and dance of Shizuka Gozen are famous, and are still performed to this day by geisha and actress alike.