Hungry Ghost Month in Singapore and Malaysia
- Origin
- The seventh-month observance of Chinese Buddhists and Taoists in Singapore and Malaysia, called Zhong Yuan Jie by Roots.gov.sg and held as Zhongyuan Pudu or Yulan rites by community associations (Oriental Daily News Malaysia). The earliest local record in these sources is Wikipedia's account of street opera staged for the ghosts in Singapore from the 1800s; Roots dates the first getai troupe to 1923. The festival's older history lies outside these sources.
- How we treat it
- The label covers the rites as believers keep them: offerings, Pudu and Yulan ceremonies, worship of Pudu Gong, the Dashiye effigy, and opera and stage shows performed partly for the spirits. It does not say that spirits are released or present. Oriental Daily presents Dashiye as a form of Guanyin come to save hungry ghosts, so he is never framed as a demon, and the festival is never framed as a horror event.
- Routes out
- Oriental Daily News Malaysia (Malaysian Chinese press) and Roots.gov.sg (Singapore's National Heritage Board) come first as community and heritage voices. Wikipedia follows for the street-opera history and the Bukit Mertajam effigy.
The lunar calendar's seventh month, when many Chinese Buddhists and Taoists in Singapore and Malaysia believe the gates of Hell open and spirits wander. Communities hold rites and offerings for the dead and stage shows for them.
Roots, the site of Singapore's National Heritage Board, describes Zhong Yuan Jie (中元节), held in the seventh lunar month and often simply called the seventh month. Most who keep it are Buddhists and Taoists of Chinese descent, who hold that the gates of Hell open at this time and spirits are let out to roam the earth.
Oriental Daily News Malaysia (2024) says popular tradition holds that the underworld opens its gate in the seventh lunar month, freeing the ghosts, known as good brothers. Many community groups and Zhongyuan associations then hold Pudu and Yulanpen rites according to custom. The paper's headline presents Dashiye, a ghost king, as a form taken by Guanyin to save hungry ghosts.
Wikipedia says worshippers honour Pudu Gong, which it calls the Taoist match for Ulkāmukha Pretarāja, before offerings go to the spirits of the dead. In Bukit Mertajam, Penang, a paper Dashiye effigy, 26 feet 8 inches high, is raised at Pek Kong Cheng for the yearly Zhongyuan celebrations.
Performances for the dead are part of the month. From the 1800s to the 1980s, Wikipedia says, temples and other groups in Singapore paid opera troupes to stage street opera for both the wandering ghosts and local residents, and Chinese communities in Malaysia did the same. As street opera declined, concert-style shows became a main feature of the festival. Roots traces Singapore's getai to 1923, when the first troupe, Da Ye Hui, was formed in New World Amusement Park, and notes a heyday in the 1950s and a comeback in the 1970s.
"During the 1800s to 1980s in Singapore, temples and various organisations would hire opera troupes to perform street opera for the wandering ghosts and residents alike.[23] Malaysian Chinese would also celebrate the festival with street opera. With the decline of street opera in both Singapore and Malaysia, modern concert-like performances became a prominent feature of the Ghost Festival."
- Zhong Yuan Jie (Hungry Ghost Festival), Roots.gov.sg, National Heritage Board Singapore
- 显现鬼王救渡饿鬼 观音化身大士爷 盂兰胜会, 雷茗敦, 东方日报 Oriental Daily News Malaysia (2024)
- Getai, Roots.gov.sg, National Heritage Board Singapore
- Ulkāmukha Pretarāja, Wikipedia