Photos: Burning along the Boat Quay; paper offerings (in this case shirts, mahjong, glasses, jewelry, and a cell phone) to burn for ancesters; joss sticks and a now defunct burning barrel.
The flames were so strong that we could feel the heat against our faces. We stopped for a minute, trying to discover the source as ash fell down around us. “What is that?” I exclaimed, fearful that the rooftop path on which we were walking was in danger. We peaked over a nearby cement wall to the neighboring building where we saw orange flames, shooting up wildly from burning bins commonly seen during Chinese holidays. “It’s the Hungry Ghost Festival,” said our friend, Rachel, a westerner, who was visiting from Hong Kong, “A woman in my office told me that I shouldn’t look if someone calls my name from behind because it might be a ghost, but that’s about all I can remember about it.”
Luckily, I had a couple of local friends who were able to enlighten me on this popular Chinese holiday. While the festival, using the lunar calendar falls in the 15th lunar month; for us westerners, it is celebrated – roughly – from mid-August to mid-September. During this time, Chinese people believe that the ghosts of those who have passed come back from the dead to visit their living relatives.
It is important that Chinese burn offerings during the festival period – paper or paper maché replicas of earthly money and possessions – as a way of passing these items on to their ancestors while they are visiting. The items can be anything an ancestor may need – from a Louis Vuitton bag to toothpaste – in the other realm. Bins can be seen all over town to facilitate the burning, and if one looks closely, he will see small joss sticks, Chinese incense generally used in temples, stuck into soil around trees or in small alters along the street.
In Singapore, neighborhood concerts – always in the evening – are not unusual to entertain the ghosts. “We set up chairs and neighbors perform,” explained one friend, “But you always leave the front row empty for the ghosts.” In Hong Kong, Chinese opera is a common form of entertainment during this time. In such a modern city as Singapore, where it is easy to forget one is in Asia, it was fun to find an ancient tradition alive and well.