Exploring the Supernatural Tradition : Ghost Festival

Imagine there are plenty of offerings neatly arranged on the table with

incense randomly stuck into the foods, drinks, or packaging bags. The

respectful and cheerful atmosphere can be found at every corner of the

streets. This kind of situation may be weird to foreigners, however, it is

actually a traditional festival called ‘’Ghost Festival’’ in Taiwan. This distinctive

festival is for Taiwanese to celebrate or worship people who have already

passed away. Precisely speaking, we will provide several foods as an offering

to treat the ‘’good brothers’’ and our ancestors to pray for safety and good

luck. During the special festival, there are several ways and activities to

celebrate. Undoubtedly, some rules and traditions should also be followed.

One of the most significant activities of the Ghost Festival is ‘’Pudu’’. In

Taiwan, people will pity those people who died without families, which means

that they will not be worshipped by anyone after their death. What’s worse,

those wandering ghosts are not able to go to paradise. Accordingly, they are

supposed to be successfully purified to get freedom. That is why we can see

plenty of temples preparing a huge ceremony during the festival to release

dead souls from suffering. In the ceremony, monks and nuns will work

together to chant the sutras day and night to bless the dead souls.

Furthermore, people are supposed to prepare some food, fruits, or cookies as

an offering to treat those wandering souls since they have no families to

worship them or even take care of them. Consequently, we can apparently

see how crucial this festival is and how Pudu works to help those dead souls.
 ‘’Ghost Grapping’’ is also another important activity of the Ghost Festival.

This interesting activity is usually held from the afternoon to midnight. During

the Ghost grappling, participants are supposed to climb to the top of the pillar,

where the offering is. It is not an easy competition as all of the pillars are

smeared with tallow oil, which makes the activity more hard to accomplish. In

the competition, people will fight for offerings against ghosts in order to

frighten the wandering souls off. It is said that the person who be the first one

to get the offering on the top of the pillar will be blessed throughout the whole

year. However, this extremely dangerous activity always causes some injuries

or even several casualties. Although this makes the traditional competition

more controversial year by year, we still cannot deny that Ghost grappling is a

significant symbol of the Ghost Festival.

Ghost Festival is indeed a special festival in Taiwan. This festival shows

great respect to the wandering souls and our ancestors. Pudu and Ghost

grappling are just two representative activities during the festival. These two

make the celebration more interesting and meaningful. Ghost Festival means

a lot to most Taiwanese and the tradition gradually becomes part of our lives.

Thanks to plenty of distinctive festivals, they make our culture more special

and unique. I believe that the tradition and the spirit of the Ghost Festival will

last forever.