Hungry Ghosts and Ramadan
A double delight! Thursday, August 20, saw the beginning of both the Taoist Hungry Ghost Festival and the Ramadan fast. Singaporean TV celebrates the start of Ramadan by having lots of people interviewed on the news saying that you should be mindful that not everybody does everything the same way but they’re all worthy of respect. Save that consensus! No crazy Ramadan bombings here, please (a brothel in a nearby Indonesia went up in flames on the eve of Ramadan).
Meanwhile, the air is smoky not just because of fires in Indonesia and Malaysia (see previous post), but because everywhere people are burning ghost money to placate the spirits of the dead. Usually this happens in temples and in home shrines; but this month is when the homeless ghosts walk around looking for sustenance, and so people offer incense, food and ghost money absolutely everywhere: our daughter’s school canteen; incinerators at the hawker centers; at tree trunks just off sidewalks. The smell of burning ghost money is distinctive – is it the ink? – and pretty acrid. But let’s hope the homeless ghosts are getting the benefit of it. These are people who died away from home, or whose bodies were never found, or who for some reason don’t have families and descendants to offer them food at the family altar. They’re stuck in some unhappy region, neither afterlife nor life, and since they’re hungry they’re grumpy! And a hungry ghost is one who’s likely to work harm on innocent passersby, so it’s best to placate them.
Coincidentally, the taxi driver told me that this is the Buddhist month of filial piety. Time to offer some goodies to your dear Buddhist departed! If you scratch a Buddhist, a Taoist bleeds…..